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

[brianblackberry]

Flitter bowed nervously as she finished her plea to Princess Luna. Would the Princess of the Night accept? One thing was for sure, the colonel made his disgust for Flitter’s acquiescent plea known. She could hear the venom in his voice for what she was doing, but the lavender pegasus didn’t care what he thought now. She wasn’t doing this for herself; she was doing it for Cloudchaser! If that meant humiliation and disdain then so be it, no way was she going to let Cloudy take the fall for her mistakes!

Luna’s response was unexpected. Flitter honestly thought after the alicorn’s previous announcement, that she would be supportive of the colonel and admonish Flitter harshly. The best hope she imagined was that she would just be summarily dismissed alone as the sole perpetrator of the current mess and Cloudy would be alright. Instead Luna gave her words of encouragement with a smile, a smile that was infectious! Flitter was so happy she fluttered up into the air with a squee, “oh thank you, thank you, thank you, your highness!” Flitter flew over and without thinking, and gave the midnight blue alicorn a big affectionate hug of gratitude, getting some of the prism she was splashed with onto Luna’s ethereal mane. The lavender peagsus pulled away quickly when she realized what she did and gave a sheepish, blushed smile, “oops… Sorry about that your highness! I guess I forgot how messy I was. I’ll get to finishing cleaning that mess right away, bye, and thank youuuu!”

Flitter happily flew back to where Cloudchaser and Misty Morning were standing, “I don’t think we’re in trouble! Well I mean I don’t think I’m in trouble, but your certainly not!” She gave Cloudchaser a huge, affectionate hug before finally landing on the still messy floor. “All we have to do is get this cleaned up and we can make those clouds again! You’ll don’t have to help, it is my mess and all, but any help issss still appreciated!” She smiled brightly.

Flitter felt inspired again, re-energized! Luna’s response may have not been a rousing speech, but it was enough to turn things back around in the bow wearing pegasus’ mind. It is all going to be alright!

High above, the unattended cloudy mess continued to coalesce into a singular bluish-gray mass, the top of which began to merge with the cloud ceiling above, causing it all to darken further. The steam from the vats below only helping to feed the nebulous gob, thick with water and almost ready to burst forward with a thunderous commencement.

[RarityDash]

"I’m sorry hon, this is my fault, and I’ll fix this! No way am I going to let them let you go! sorry, be right back!”

"Fliter, wait...!" Cloudchaser started, but her mare was already moving in Luna's direction. She could tell immediately that Flitter had misinterpreted things. She likely assumed that since Cloudchaser worked as a weather pony, this current job was mandatory for her. She could, she supposed, understand why Flitter might be tempted to believe that, but if you looked at the more complete picture it didn't really make a lot of sense. She was a night weather pony who set up weather patterns in Ponyville. She didn't do factory work at all and was as hopeless when it came to it as Flitter was. Of course this wasn't work expected of her; it was well out of her expertise, and it required a trip up to Cloudsdale as well...

​

“ummm, your most gracious majesty? Pleeeeeeease don’t let Cloudy, I mean, Cloudchaser.. Or the others! Umm, please don’t let them get fired for my mistakes! I umm, we plead for your mercy and wisdom in this manner oh Princess of the Night!”

And for it, her filly friend was prepared to grovel before the princess and kind of embarrass herself. It was kind of an embarrassing thing to see happening on many levels, but mostly in the personal sense as she knew that it was all based on a misunderstanding. At the same time, she was kind of curious to see how the night princess might react to a pony just suddenly throwing herself down at her hooves to plead...

​

“Oh quit your GROVELING! Ugggh, get back to work.”

"Volunteer, your time is precious to you and ours. Please inform you friend that no pony shall be fired today. We have too much to lose in the case of failure. We must succeed. The Colonel, he's just, upset about something. It's best that we do our best to complete the task. I assure you, that if you do, the Equestrian Council in Canterlot will thank the Clousdale citizens with much more than just words. I thank thee for the support.There's nothing like some good old-fashioned weather labor."

How the colonel might react, of course, was predictable enough. Cloudchaser really had not taste for that guy. Princess Luna on the other hoof, her words and the words she spoke to the colonel restored Chaser's faith in the night princess. She was happy to see that she was an understanding mare. She of course, didn't have one thing entirely right in this case...

"Well...uh... actually, Your Highness.... me and Flitter aren't actually Cloudsdale citizens. We're both from Ponyville... so..." Cloudchaser started and almost immediately wished she hadn't said anything. Talking to a real life princess was just really crazy hard; correcting a princess was just unthinkable. "So... um... but thanks! We'll do our best from here on out. You can just count on that!" she finished by just adding enthusiasm to try and save face. She then quickly backed away and turned toward Flitter.

​

“I don’t think we’re in trouble! Well I mean I don’t think I’m in trouble, but your certainly not All we have to do is get this cleaned up and we can make those clouds again! You’ll don’t have to help, it is my mess and all, but any help issss still appreciated!”

"Don't be silly, Flit," she said as she hugged the other mare tight and nuzzled the mare's cheek. "It's my mess as much as yours... and, even if it weren't, you can't expect me to just sit and watch as my mare cleans up so much all on her own," she added with a nod.

"Now, let's get to work, love! If we work together, we'll have it looking amazing in no time at all," Cloudchaser added with a perfectly wide smile. As with before, she was perfectly unaware of what might have been happening in the clouds above them...

​

[Bellosh]

At a time like this, Col. Pummel wondered why Princess Luna didn’t stick to ruling Equestria during the nighttime hours. Pummel gave his sovereign a detailed report on what happened, only to be accused of pride for his efforts. Luna asked why the factory floor was in disarray, and the colonel explained precisely why. How a report could be labeled as prideful baffled Pummel to no extent, although his stoic face dared not reveal any sign of confusion within the aged stallion.

In all honesty, Pummel never believed from the beginning that he could work with a group of civilians. The reason he was leading the pegasi of Vapor Dep was because the stallion came to factory management earlier in the crisis, with a proposal to staff the weather factory with REA soldiers for the duration of the emergency. What remained of the factory’s managers denied the proposal out of naive faith in the pegasi community’s ability to come together, but it eventually turned out that qualified task group leaders were few and far between. So Pummel accepted a request to lead Vapor Dep; Princess Luna could dream about replacing the colonel all she wanted, but the old colonel knew how hard pressed the alicorn would be to find a suitable substitute.

The negative emotions in Col. Pummel’s head needed to dissipate right now however, as work still needed to be done. To put it plainly, finding a way to “positively reinforce” the volunteers to Luna’s liking was easier said then done. “How are we supposed to provide positive reinforcement to these volunteers, Your Highness?” asked the emotionless pegasus; “Factory management stipulated that these ponies would work for free, and they can’t be promoted because they won’t be hired as employees. How are we supposed to motivate the volunteers without promise of payment or higher ranks?”

[Hippo]

The begging pony's friend, needed to point out to Luna that they were not from Cloudsdale, but were in fact called from Ponyville to help. For the basis of information Luna needed to assess the situation, it only added to Luna's confidence that these ponies were fit for the job and than at motivational issues fell on the Colonel. However, Princess Luna would give a distrustful eye as she looked at Cloudchaser. The look of indifference and slightly offendedness was painted on the alicorn mare's face.

But with the Colonel, it seemed to Luna that he was beyond help, as he was purely ignorant to his inability to properly motivate the workers. So Luna took the challenge herself, knowing it would not be easy. Even still, she didn't it with a cocky smile. "I'll show you how I would do it."

Luna stepped up to announce her statements once again to all the worker ponies. "Attention ponies! Let's try to work extra hard, and if you guys improve efficiency within the hour, I will reward you with delicious cupcakes for everypony!"

Luna stepped back down and smacked the Colonel in the chest playfully. Luna had an almost crazed look on her face, her emotions excited by the idea of giving ponies a chance to prove themselves. "Colonel, go fetch us ten dozen cupcakes from the closest bakery."

​

[brianblackberry]

Flitter was certainly feeling better, all they had to do is get things cleaned up and they could get right back to making more clouds; she doubted they were even that much behind schedule. She was so enthusiastic, the lavender pegasus put her fore hooves around Misty Morning and Cloudchaser and pulled them into an impromptu group hug of support. Support.. and messy rainbow colored prism. "Let's go team!" Flitter twirled up into the air before fluttering back down to grab her mop; she couldn't help but use one of her old cheers from her secondary school days.

The clean up was going well, as Flitter squeezed another batch of prism from her mop into a bucket, she heard Princess Luna's pronouncement! If they could be back on and exceed schedule.. Cupcakes! That sounded good to the bow wearing pegasus who hadn't had anything to eat since before her and Cloudchaser flew all the way over the Cloudsdale this morning. It amused her even more that the colonel was ordered to get the muffins. She had no idea if that was meant to humble Pummel a bit or Luna just figure she just ask the one available pony. Either way, Flitter couldn't help but offer a "request" of her own with a smile of glee, "I would like mine chocolate chip colonel, so if you make sure there are a couple of those in your batch from the bakery, I'd really appreciate it. Thank yuuuuuuu…"

She turned back to Cloudchaser with a sarcastic smile, "I couldn't resist." Everything was going to be fine, they were about done with the cleanup and they had the instructions, it was time to make and shape more clouds! That made Flitter wonder, what about the clouds they made earlier and forgot about, they just be collecting at the ceiling and…

BBOOOOOMMMM!!

A loud, crashing sound billowed overhead, shaking the very ground Flitter was standing on and nearly deafening in its intensity. It was the unmistakable sound of a thunderous clap, and right along side it was a brilliant flash of light as a bolt of lightening shot down and stuck the cloud floor in front of her, Misty, and Cloudchaser, only a few feet away. Flitter was simply shocked and wide eyed, caught utterly without warning but the frightening pronouncement of what surely sounded like birth cries of a new storm. As she slowly looked up, almost afraid to look out of sheer terror that what she fear was true, really was.

It was.

Above the workers of the Vaporization Department was a frightening site. All the clouds that were created earlier by Flitter and Cloudchaser were left unattended. Free to coalesce and continuously fed by the warm moisture coming off the huge vats filled with prism and water, a fearsome thunderstorm had formed. Flitter looked on in horror as the mighty anvil shaped top, the thunderhead, rose and darkened before them and grew so tall, it merged with and pushed through the cloud ceiling above, arising through the floor of the mixing department above them. Drops of water had yet to fall, but the storm was already filling past the room and out the doors as well, and with another shot of lightening striking the floor, signaled with thunderous pronouncement, it was ready to burst forward it's torrent of water and wind.

[RarityDash]

"Attention ponies! Let's try to work extra hard, and if you guys improve efficiency within the hour, I will reward you with delicious cupcakes for everypony!"

Okay, yeah, Princess Luna was awesome after all. This was how you lead ponies, with promises of cupcakes! It certainly helped that Cloudchaser was quite hungry at the moment. It was the perfect motivator for her she was pretty sure.

"Say no more, Princess. We got this," Cloudchaser started at a nod. "Okay, everypony, let's kick it into gear! Cupcakes depend on it," she added with a cheery grin, ready to get to work.

​

"I would like mine chocolate chip colonel, so if you make sure there are a couple of those in your batch from the bakery, I'd really appreciate it. Thank yuuuuuuu…"

"I couldn't resist."

Before she could kick it into action, Flitter decided to be extra precious and kind of goad the Colonel with a cupcake order. it was almost a little much, though Cloudchaser couldn't say he didn't deserve it. She chuckled and smiled at her mare and then gave an approving nod.

"You really are adorable," she said with a smile. "Though come on, let's--"

Just as Cloudchaser was about to suggest they get to their work for real now, a super loud crashing sound could be heard overhead. Cloudchaser knew the sound well as thunder and looked up instincitvely. Sure enough, there was a giant thundercloud up there raging like crazy and only growing in size. Cloudchaser didn't have to think twice about what to do. It needed to be taken care of before it grew to be too dangerous.

"I'm on it," she said with a nod. "I may not know very well how to do all this factory work, but as a weather mare, fighting storms is what I do," she said and then she darted upward to fight the storm cloud,

She flew around the storm quickly, kicking at it and trying to get it to behave, but it proved to be a fierce one. It was gonna be hard for any one mare, even a trained weather pony to handle it all on her own. She'd stick to it and try her best though. Flitter was counting on her after all.

​

[Bellosh]

Again, Col. Pummel couldn’t help but question Princess Luna’s judgement. How was it a reward to fill one’s body with some of the most unhealthiest junk imaginable? Wouldn’t it be better for the workers to earn healthy fruits and vegetables instead? Food that actually nourished the body and not poisoned it? Pummel would have obeyed the order to collect the food himself, but he strongly contemplated advising Luna to reconsider her choice of food.

But the old colonel never got the chance. This time, a thudercloud somehow materialized in the chamber, allowing for rogue lightning to wreck havoc inside of Vapor Dep. Faced with this new dangerous situation, and understanding that Princess Luna faced considerable danger, Pummel instinctively moved with haste to fulfill his oath as an army officer. Flying so that he hovered between Luna and the miniature storm, the grizzled stallion loudly instructed with no-nonsense authority; “PRINCESS, GET DOWN! LET THE-!”

*ZZZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPP*

And just like that, a stray lightning bolt turned Col. Pummel into a crispy pony. Taking a bolt for the Princess, Pummel felt pain for only a second, only to experience unconsciousness. Immediately, the once imposing pegasus plummeted into the factory floor, leaving a small crater where he impacted. He’d eventually be right as rain again, but for now, he was down for the count. Without Pummel, could everypony else save Vapor Dep before all their productivity turned to waste? Before the entire department became a total write-off, doming Equestria for an entire season?

[Hippo]

Just as the Colonel dove to Luna's protection, Luna quickly produced a protection spell aroud herself, and it absorbed any shock that would have been aimed at her. The Colonel, however, dove into harms way, his pelt now blacker than it was before. His clothes in need of replacing and his facial expression looking none too pleased. Luna, however, reacted sideways as soon as she realized the colonel would still be alive. "Alas, our bakery delivery pony has been fallen by an accident. Let this be a lesson to the overall safety of this department. But, do not worry. I, the Princess of the Night, shall go fetch these baked goods on her own. Please make haste in fixing the issue at hoof, and I shall return shortly!" And with that, Luna dove away spreading her wings making way through an exit hole of the factory. Once outside, she was hit by Celestia's sun she had not seen for several hours, and it made her squint. Down below, she easily saw the downtown bakery from up the cloud road from the factories. She soared there to pick up the special order.

​

[brianblackberry]

That was one large thunderhead, or at least as far as Flitter could tell before the anvil shape top merged with the ceiling above. It was already announcing with a thunderous opening it's presence but hadn't started to pour forth it's rainy contents just yet. That was the critical part! Flitter may not be a weather mare, but she was all too aware that if it started to pour, the water would hit the prism mix, forming a whole new wild batch of clouds that would only add to the storm; feeding itself until the prism was empty!

What horrified the bow wearing pegasus was watching as the old colonel fell protecting Luna from an errant lightening strike. Flitter couldn't help but feel this was all her fault. If they had been watching the vats more closely rather than arguing with him, or in Flitter's case, antagonizing him, they could have gotten to the clouds before they coalesced. She wanted to cry, she wanted to run away, but hearing Cloudchaser attack the cloud was enough to draw on that hidden reserve of strength most ponies had when the ones they cared for the most needed them. Right now Cloudchaser needed her! "I'm right behind you Cloudy!!"

Flitter didn't have much experience with storms, but as a pegasus she a least had basic weather training. It was all part of flight academy that pretty much every pegasus went through as a filly or colt. She knew the basics, including cloud manipulation; surely it would be enough! At least she hoped so as she burrowed through the deep blue storm in an attempt to break it up, her face and mane soaked to the skin with beads of water. It was hard going and windy, but maybe if they broke the clouds up enough…

"Wait, where did Princess Luna go?" It just dawned on Flitter that one of the royal sisters should be able to put a real dent into this storm, but the mare of the night was nowhere to be seen. What happened to her? Did she leave? Why would she leave? It was disconcerting and discouraging; but there was no time to dwell on that, it was all up to the pegasai now! Flitter flew right back at the storm only to be knocked for a loop by a wind sheer, that is when she noticed small droplets starting to fall, it was going to start raining!

"We got to get this storm out of this room right now Cloudchaser!! Before it makes more clouds! Can we push it outside, maybe break it into small hunks??!" She had an extremely worried look of uncertainty on he face. There had to be a strategy for this that weather ponies knew, right?

Right?

[RarityDash]

"Wait, where did Princess Luna go?"

Cloudchaser could tell that Flitter was worried by the princesses sudden disappearance, but Cloudchaser thought she understood it. For Luna, destroying the storm cloud would be a simple task. She'd have been able to take care of it with minimal effort by flexing her princess magic. Instead, however, she had decided to trust the problem to them. She was, as princess of Equestria, placing her faith in her common pegasi subjects to set thing right. In a word, she was giving Cloudchaser and Flitter the chance they needed to show off what they can do. Cloudchaser wasn't about to waste that opportunity either. With a princess of Equestria placing her faith in her, Cloudchaser wasn't about to give this rough storm anything but her very best cloud busting spirit.

​

"We got to get this storm out of this room right now Cloudchaser!! Before it makes more clouds! Can we push it outside, maybe break it into small hunks??!"

"No, with one like this, we can't risk moving it or breaking it into smaller parts that could grow into full sized storms themselves. We have to bust it up in one go. Cloudchaser started with the less weather savvy pegasi. "With one of these, where's how gotta do it.We fly around it as quickly as we can, create some force to constrict it and bunch it all up close and tight into a little concentrated ball of storm. Then all we do is stomp that flat as hard as we can so it become nothing more than a big puddle."

It was a maneuver Chaser had learned with Dashie and the others for battling large, unruly, hard to bust storm clouds that would otherwise keep growing. Usually it was done with a couple more weather pegasi, but Cloudchaser had confidence in herself and Flitter. They could beat this nasty cloud yet.

"Remember to fly fast, Flit. it's not going to get smaller, unless we're quick to fly around it!" Chaser started with a nod. She then dashed right toward the storm once more, this time starting to fly all the way around it again and again.

​

[Bellosh]

Alarms blared in the background while Flitter and Cloudchaser worked on stopping the thundercloud. Standard procedure during these sorts of emergencies when a rogue cloud in the Weather Factory reached critical mass was to clear out and find shelter. By instructing the volunteers to take cover away from the factory, it essentially meant accepting the facility’s fate and sacrificing an entire production run of rainclouds. Even if everything got blown to electrical bits, at least everypony would remain safe, which factory policies prioritized over everything else. Everything.

“Come on, git outta’ thar!” screamed the volunteer supervisor Sugar Apple, shepherding the last of the workers outside. But she couldn’t bring herself to stay at the exitway forever; once everypony other than Flitter and Cloudchaser left the scene, so did she. Sugar reasoned it wasn’t worth it dissuade those two mares from last-minute heroics, even if they’d most likely be doomed to failure. At least, maybe they could buy time for everypony else to reach a safe distance before the campus turned into ground zero for the storm of the century.

But... one other pony remained. No one bothered to drag the fallen Col. Pummel out of the Vaporization Department, so as the old stallion fought his way back to consciousness and strained to lift himself up, he alone now witnessed the efforts of two “misfits” forestalling the inevitable. Among all the virtues that Pummel idolized, bravery ranked highest of all. And seeing Flitter and Cloudchaser remain behind to fight the storm alone, well, it was enough for the stalwart officer to instantly forgive the pair for their previous transgressions.

If only there was something Pummel could do himself to help. But alas, being charred to a crisp by a lightning bolt made it rather hard for the reeling colonel to speak up.

[brianblackberry]

Cloudchaser quickly shot down Flitter's idea about how to handle the encompassing thunderstorm in the prism mixing chamber with one of her own. Truth be told Flitter was just guessing, she had no real weather control experience outside of basic cloud shaping. Cloudy on the other hoof, she was an experienced weather mare. Flitter nodded to her fillyfriend's in agreement even if the idea sounded counter-intuitive in her mind. Wouldn't it become more intense the smaller it got? Wouldn't all the water cause some flooding? As unsure as she was, she just have to trust in Cloudchaser's experience!

Flitter watched in fear as the floor manager, Sugar Apple evacuated all the other ponies in the room, save Cloudy, herself, and the still unconscious Colonel Pummel. Sigh… Your are such a dumb filly sometimes Flitter, if you had listened to him more, this mess may have been avoided and no pony would be hurt… It was disheartening to think about, but she couldn't let a defeatist attitude take over now, Cloudchaser needed her! It was up to just the two of them, and she was going to make this right! "Right behind you Cloudy, you've never seen me go so fast!" If only she had her handy dandy goggles! No matter, if she could help create a tornado to sweep water up to Cloudsdale, surely she could constrict a thunderstorm goggles or no!

Although nowhere near close to Cloudchaser's speed, Flitter managed a pretty good clip around the storm, as fast as she could remember flying. She just had to keep it together and not exhaust herself before they manage to get the storm to the size Cloudy wanted. It was slowly working, but avoiding the ever more concentrated lightening was tricky for a pony with little experience like she had, but they were starting to pull it off. If only they had some extra help! Dash, Sugar Apple, Luna, Pummel? We could use you right now!

[PedestrianWolf]

(flying in from Prism Mixing)

The klaxons and alarm bells going off all over the factory were making Snickerdoodle's sinus headache even worse. She needed to find Sugar Apple, or some other qualified supervisor, to make sure the situation was being handled properly. So many volunteers in the weather factory would just be panicking right now.

The vanilla custard mare flew down to Vaporization, where undoubtedly the managerial types would be working to stop the thundercloud forming within the factory walls. As soon as she flew in the door though, she pulled up short. "Whoa!"

Only two pegasi were working the storm. Two! There was no way they could contain the large angry (and strangely colorful) storm by themselves. Headache be buck'd, Snickerdoodle knew that she had to help. She shucked her factory issued jacket off and dropped it to the floor as she raced upwards. It would only get sopping wet and slow her down. "I'ma comin!" she shouted, as she joined the pair attempting to create the vortex. "Let's do this thing!"

[Mojo]

Professor Clyde Krashkop

(flying in from Prism mixing)

Having barely escaped the ongoing storm's assault on the Rainbow Factory building with Derpy Hooves, the elderly green Pegasus stallion landed with her in his front legs, gently laying her down before landing himself. After checking to see if Derpy was alright, the Professor looked around to see if he could find somepony who was taking charge of the situation. He wanted to assure everypony that the emergency shotdown failsafe devices inside the Rainbow Factory building had activated so the supply of rainbow water would be safe. He knew this because he knew the design of the building and had seen the flashing emergency lights coming on as he was rescuing Derpy. But now, he saw a group of Pegasi flying up to form a vortex. Though the Professor did not completely understand what was going on, he realized that somepony must have called for this action, so he wanted to help too.

"I'm coming, mein fellow Pegasi!" the Professor called out as he took off, following Snickerdoodle into the vortex formation.

[RarityDash]

"Right behind you Cloudy, you've never seen me go so fast!"

Cloudchaser smiled back at her fillyfriend. She nodded to her. "Awesome, Flit, just be sure you're ready," she said. "We'll be able to manage it when it's smaller, but it will also get angrier and messier. We can't break our focus, even when it really starts to fight us!"

The weather mare spoke seriously, the adrenaline masking any fear she might have. She had to remind herself that this kind of cloud could be dangerous, especially for a mare like Flitter who wasn't trained for it. Hay, even Cloudchaser got kicked to the ground by stormclouds sometimes. She wasn't very accustomed to fighting them alone. Usually somepony dependable like Dashie was there with her. She wasn't sure she could get the best of this one just with Flitter, and yet, she had to, didn't she? Who else was going to get to it before it was too late?

Chaser did the best, but the cloud was a tough one and it wanted to grow, not shrink down. As fast as her and Flitter went, they were not creating a tight enough vortex for the job. Cloudchaser became fearful? What if they couldn't do it? What if Flitter got hurt somehow? Maybe it was best to back off for now...

Just as the doubts were settling in, two pegasi swooped in to restore Cloudchaser's confidence. One was a young mare, the other and old stallion, but they both were quick to fly boldly into the face of the unruly cloud. Chaser smiled. With the help, she knew they could do it. She nodded and looked toward the newcomers.

"All right, everypony, let's beat this thing!" she started brightly. "Give it everything you got!" She kicked into her reserve speed and together with the others, the vortex around the cloud grew swifter and tighter and the cloud began to contract.

"Just a little more and we'll have it!" she declared, delighted to finally be seeing progress.

​

[brianblackberry]

Flitter continued to fly around the storm in an ever tightening orbit, following Cloudchaser's instructions, and her lead. Only one other time had the bow wearing mare moved with such speed was when she was helping form the tornado needed to bring the water up to Cloudsdale. As a pegasus who typically flew casually, it was exhausting to move so fast, and it wasn't even all that rapid, as her spiky maned partner easily sped around the shrinking ball of darkness twice for each single revolution Flitter did. Still, she was in now way going to give up now, no matter how bone-tired she was becoming; Cloudy's plan was working after all and she had to do her part, because in part, it was her fault to begin with.

The storm was not willing to go down without a fight, spraying ever more intense rain in every direction and in the faces of the two pegasai. Flitter really wished she had her goggles with her, she could barely see and her coat was already soaked to the skin. A bolt of lightening shot out right over her head and knocked Flitter wildly off course, causing her to spiral to the ground. Fortunately she was able to land on all four legs although what remained of her precious bow was singed black as it fell away from her noggin. Her sopping mane drooped over her face and along the sides of her neck as she looked back up, not with despair, but with even more determination.. "Burn my bow and get away with it? I. Don't. Think. So!"

The lavender pegasus flew right back at the storm, running on anger and adrenaline, but it didn't last long. The storm was so powerful that she could feel herself quickly becoming overcome with fatigue, it just seemed too much for the two of them. Fortunately it was no longer just the two of them as the prism mixing team had come down to help! It was enough, with four of them working together the storm continued to contract despite it's best thunderous efforts to dissuade them. Sure there were no princesses, no supervisors, but with the help of ordinary ponies like herself, this tempest was finally being defeated! "We got it now girls! Er, I mean girls and professor! We almost have it to the point where we can give it a good stomping!! Yeeeehaw!!" Flitter blushed, was 'yeehaw' too corny? It didn't really matter, she was in the moment!

The storm itself darkened to a deep, almost midnight blue as it became no larger than one of the vats, it was almost ready to stomp, and by Celestia she was ready to vent her frustrations doing just that!

[Bellosh]

As Col. Pummel’s senses returned one by one, it became evident to him what the remaining volunteers hoped to accomplish. Agreeing that it was too dangerous to break the storm apart by other means, the pegasi decided to use an out-of-the-box solution. What Pummel knew though that the others didn’t was the consequences of popping a concentrated storm. Everyone who graduated flight school knows when a pegasus releases a bundle of water vapor from its concentrated cloud form, all that matter has to go somewhere.

Typically, stomping a cloud out of existence results in nothing malign, the water vapor free to reassemble again at a different time someplace else. However, things got [interesting when a storm cloud gets entirely condensed so it can be popped in one go. Energy can neither be created or destroyed, so when a massive cloud filled with the ability to generate severe lightning gets compressed to a tiny fraction of its original size, and then allowed to escape the confines of the tiny cloud... well congratulations, you just detonated an object that might as well be called a “weather bomb”.

Unless ponies were involved in the REA-sponsored program determining studying the effects of “weather bombs”, they generally tended to not realize that such a fearsome phenomenon was even possible. Yet here Col. Pummel was, just about to witness four civilians figuring this fact out for themselves in perhaps the most terrible manner. Right before a volunteer could perform the act that might have very well wrecked Cloudsdale, the stallion violently outstretched his hoof;

“HALT!!!!!!!”

Immediately once the others turned their attention to him, Pummel explained; “We can’t pop that thing here, it’ll blow up the entire city! There isn’t much time to get the cloud safely away from Cloudsdale before all that energy breaks free!”

[PedestrianWolf]

The barometric pressure in the room was making Snickerdoodle's headache even worse than it already was. As she flew in circles, trying to contain the rogue storm, the blood pounded in her ears, and her vision went blurry around the edges. Still, she flew on. There was an emergency situation that needed her attention, darn it. Just as the storm cloud was condensed to a manageable size, a loud authoratative voice shouted from below,

“HALT!!!!!!!”

Snickerdoodle halted immediately. The sudden stop caused her stomach to do flips, and her head to spin. She threw one hoof out to try to steady herself as her vision swam and her ears rang. Unfortunately, she put her hoof right into the stormcloud. A bolt of lightning took the opportunity to shoot out and hit her square in the side. The world went white for a moment, and the vanilla custard pegasus fell crumpled to the floor of the weather factory, unconscious.

[Mojo]

Professor Krashkop continued to fly in the tight vortex formation, struggling to fly as fast as his elderly Pegasus frame could go. Just when it looked like the wind vortex the group had formed was going to stop the storm, a loud shout of "HALT!!!" came from the ground.

"WHO VAS DEE DUMKOFF WHO SHOUTED HALT??" the green Pegasus stallion shouted just as he heard another sound, the sound of Snickerdoodle getting struck by lightning and falling from the sky.

"FRAULEIN SNICKERDOODLE!" Professor Krashkop shouted as he quickly dived down in an attempt to catch the falling Pegasus mare, but the gray maned stallion couldn't dive fast enough to intercept her before she struck bottom. Making an uncharacteristic perfect landing, the Professor galloped over to her side.

"Fraulein! Please speak to me! Vee vill help you!" Professor Krashkop promised, quickly reaching to retrieve a small First Aide kit from his saddlebag while looking up at Col. Pummel. "Don't just stand dere like a statue, assist me! I fear Poor Frau Snickerdoodle's been badly injured! SNELL!"

[RarityDash]

"No, Flitter!" Cloudchaser shouted in fear as her love was nearly struck by a bolt of lightning from the fierce storm cloud. Though she fell to the ground physically unharmed, her adorable hair bow had been singed.

Cloudchaser growled with anger once she was sure Flitter was safe and could turn back toward the cloud. "Stupid cloud! Flitter looked cute in that bow and you had to ruin it!" she shouted, feeling an anger in her.

Soon, however, with the help of the others the cloud was small enough to be smashed out. Cloudchaser glared at the enemy cloud, ready to do just that. "Come on, everyone, let's teach this dumb cloud a lesson and stomp it flat!" she called out as she darted at the cloud ready to end it.

That was when the bellowing voice of the colonel shouted to them, demanding that they halt. Cloudchaser didn't want to listen. She didn't have time for him now, not with so many at risk. She was about to continue powering straight ahead at the cloud, but she found it hard to force herself. Maybe it was how she had been drilled at the Wonderbolts Academy or just by Rainbow Dash, but she decided to stop her momentum and look toward the REA pony as he spoke.

What he said caused her eyes to open wide. She had compressed clouds like this before, but never had they been such lightning charged, ferocious storms as this. For simple rain clouds, there was just a messy bang that kicked you back a few feet and sprayed lots and lots of rain everywhere. It was wet and loud but not really anything that was a threat. II hadn't really occurred to her that a supercharged lightning storm cloud might be different. Usually such clouds weren't found in perfect isolation like this to experiment on. Not by her anyway. It seemed extreme to say it might blow up all of Cloudsdale, but at the same time, Cloudchaser didn't really know and she didn't want to risk anything bad happening, not with Flitter there.

"Heh. In that case, let's change our plan," she said, not wanting to waste time arguing. "With it this small, we can move it if we're quick. We'll send it flying off into the distance where it can safely expand again!" she started with a nod.

She flew to the cloud and began to push at it. Though it was smaller than a pony now, as it still cracked with lightning and was remarkably wet and dense, it was hard to move. "Everyone, help me push this cloud! Let's get it away from Cloudsdale!"

​

[brianblackberry]

Flitter flew above the cloud in frustration and determination as she prepared to stomp on the raging storm with all her might as soon as Cloudchaser gave the cue. Her petite frame was soaked, water dripping off every part of her body, her bowless, fully drenched mane covered much of her face until she pushed some of it aside to reveal her resolute expression at finally beating this storm, beating her mistake…

Cloudchaser signaled it was time in her words, "teach this dumb cloud a lesson" and Flitter flew all the way up to the light blue cloud dealing of the room and was about to nose drive right at the storm when she heard a bellowing voice from below…

"HALT!!!!"

It was that old grump, Colonel Pummel! As much as she personally disliked the old soldier's attitude up to this point, the lavender peagsus decided to actually listen to what he had to say, after all, it was her arrogance regarding his instructions that earlier help create this mess; although his terrible attitude and disrespect played into it as well, at least as far as Flitter was concerned. As Pummel explained why the current plan would result in disaster, Flitter just looked at her mare friend with a confused expression of concern, seeking confirmation; after all Cloudy was the one experienced weather pony of the group.

When Cloudchaser stated her support of Pummel's idea, Flitter just nodded, "You know I'll help Cloudy!" Not her most eloquent of responses but the lavender mare was out of her element, all she could reasonably do is follow Cloudchaser's instructions when it came to storms. Her love must know what she was doing after all, dealing with storms out in the countryside at night was the spiky maned mare's job, one Flitter was often reminded of when Cloudchaser returned home, her normally pointy mane severely drooped by hours of drenching torrents.

"Just give me one second Cloudy, 'kay?" Flitter fluttered down to where Snickerdoodle and Krashkop were and landed next to them. She looked closely at the cream colored mare but couldn't find any obvious injuries or burns, it looked as if she was simply unconscious. Flitter flew over to the side of the room and tore some cloud from one of the columns, she would just fix it later, and brought it over to the pair and started to kneed the white form with her hooves until it floofed into a soft looking cloud, "there you go professor, lay her head on this! Should be nice and soft!" Sure she wasn't a weather pony but Flitter did well in those cloud manipulation classes every pegasus had to take when they were younger, plus she had experience making cloud beds for Cloudchaser to catch quick naps during those double shifts her spiky maned partner occasionally had to do, although Flitter would often catch Dash in them.

Confident she did all she could for Snickerdoodle for now, Flutter flew back up to the rumbling, almost black, churning thunderous mass and smiled warily at Cloudchaser, "Almost hon, I'm, uh, I'm ready!! So whenever you are ready, let's push this thing someplace safe and get rid of it once and for all! Whooooo!" She struck a cheering pose, one much like those of her old cheerleader days in a dorky attempt at offering encouragement; truth was she was more scared than anything.

Scared but determine to stick by Cloudchaser's side and get this done once and for all!

[Bellosh]

Since it seemed the universe conspired to offend Col. Pummel even further, it wasn’t that much of a surprise when the sole full-time worker remaining ended up incapacitated by a lightning bolt. That accident sent Professor Krashkop into a panic, and he quickly begged the military stallion for assistance. As unfortunate as Snickerdoodle’s situation was however, Pummel had more grave things to worry about. Flitter and Cloudchaser alone were not pushing the cloud fast enough, and the only pony with the strength to render aid to them in time... was Pummel himself.

“You watch over that worker!” the colonel immediately bellowed back to Krashkop; “These other two need my backup!!!” Since Krashkop’s physical strength looked the most questionable out of everypony stuck on the factory floor, he might as well stay behind to make sure Snickerdoodle’s condition didn’t deteriorate. Meanwhile, Pummel himself got up beneath the compacted stormcloud and helped push on it, straining his limbs as he needed. That deceptively-dense cloud thankfully moved along just a little bit faster now; the Vapor Dep crew needed all the breaks it could get. Every second counted now.

[PedestrianWolf]

Everything was white, like soft fluffy clouds. Snickerdoodle was vaguely aware of voices floating in the ether, but they were muffled and indistinct. The pegasus mare tried to move, but seemed unable to. It was like swimming in cookie batter. Her eyes fluttered and closed again. Maybe this was all just a bad dream, brought on by the remnants of the feather flu. She should go back to sleep. Yes, sleep. That was a good idea. Five more minutes, mom...

[RarityDash]

Cloudchaser had to admire Flitter's compassion. Even with the threat of the cloud looming, even with the danger it posed, here she was rushing to help the other afflicted by its wrath. Sure, it was possibly misguided. If they took too long, the cloud would just expand outward again to where they couldn't effectively manipulate it. Still, it was a good reminder of the amazing sort of pony Cloudchaser loved. She smiled as she waited for Flitter to return to them.

"Right then, let's go, Flit!" she gave the cry as she started to push the dense cloud with all she had. It started to move with them both pushing, but slow at first. Cloudchaser worried then it fit would be enough. The cloud was already starting to expand back outward.

Then, suddenly it started to really move again. Chaser looked to her side and there she saw it was none other than the old grump of a colonel Pummel himself. Despite all that happened, Cloudchaser was happy to see him helping out. "All right, Colonel!" she called out, cheerfully as they pushed and pushed, moving it out of the building and into Cloudsdale sky.

"Just a little further you two and well be able to clear the city!" she shouted as they continued to push the cloud along, even as it continued to grow.

​

[Mojo]

Professor Krashkop was shocked to hear Snickerdoodle's muttering.

"ACK! UNEEMAL! Poor Frau Snickerdoodle must be delusional!" the elderly Pegasus stallion neighed, quickly searching his First Aide kit for anything that could help. "You must stay avake, fraulien! You appear to have had a head trauma, though I see no blood or contusion. I so vish vee could get you to a medical professional, but for now, you must lie still und not go to sleep. Please stay avake, frau Snickerdoodle, I vill not desert you!"