“APPLEBLOOM! AAAAPPLEBLOOM!” Applejack’s shouts echoed through the rain. Her coat and mane were soaked with rain water and her hooves were covered in mud. Water splashed in every direction as she stepped into another puddle.

Twilight ran behind her, her horn glowing in soft light. Suddenly she turned to the right. “This way!” she shouted in Applejack’s direction.

A massive bolt of lightning could be seen in the distance. Applejack hearth skipped a beat as she realized that it was in the direction Twilight pointed to.

As they sped up, galloping through the raid, neither Twilight nor Applejack noticed that the rain weakened and the thunder stopped.

“M-Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.” Applebloom stuttered. She had curled up under an old tree, her fur and mane completely soaked with water. She sneezed and shivered as the cold wind blew around her.

She had followed the strange pegasus with the cloud through the town, until she lost track of her. The rain got stronger and prevented her from seeing anything farther away than a few hoofsteps. She stumbled around till she found the tree, under which she lay now.

“Big sis’… please… Ah need you…” she cried into the wind.

At least it couldn’t get any worse, she thought to herself.

And then the lightning hit the tree behind her, splitting it in half.

Silver let out a sigh of relief. Finally she was able to shake off the earth pony following her. Though she had to admit, she never had imagined anyone leaving their houses, or even chasing her! Though, it boggled her mind why anyone would even try to follow her through this storm.

She lay down on her cloud, allowing herself to rest for a few minutes. Her heavy breath and the falling rain was everything she could hear. Her ears tilted to the side, fearing that maybe the pony chasing her hadn’t given up and was just waiting for an opportunity like this.

Minutes passed as a realization hit her. She hit her forehead with one of her hooves. “Stupid, stupid! Why didn’t I just fly higher?” She let out a long tired yawn. The glow of her bracelet intensified a bit as she ordered the cloud to rise higher into the air.

And then her ear caught the crying shouts of a pony, barely noticeable through the constant noise of falling water. She followed the direction where the sound came from. A lone tree, which got split in half by a massive bolt of lightning the very instant she looked at it. “Oh no… please don’t be there… ” she whispered. The faint shadow of a little pony was barely visible in front of it. Her cloud couldn’t move fast enough to get there before something terrible…

Silver quickly unfolded her wings, ripping away the water soaked bandages in the process. Gritting her teeth to suppress the pain, she jumped up from her cloud and flew as fast as she could.

Applebloom couldn’t move. Shock froze her in place, as the half of the tree slowly fell in her direction. It seemed to fall forever. She couldn’t look away. No matter how much she tried, her legs wouldn’t move. “Sis’… help…”

Someone jumped at her, throwing her away from the falling tree, seconds before it impacted on the ground. Applebloom and her savior rolled away in a tangle of legs, wet manes, tails and wings.

As they finally came to a halt, Applebloom lay on top of another pony. “Big sis’, is that you?” she asked. The answer came in form of two wings that slowly waved in front of her eyes, before she was thrown of by the Pegasus below her. The Pegasus she now identified as the one she was chasing. Surprisingly she could see her very well, despite the rain and the, through the thick storm clouds, weakened light. No, that was wrong. There was enough light. It originated from the glowing bracelet that the Pegasus wore right above her right front hoof. She looked down on Applebloom with her silver colored eyes, a saddened and regretful expression in her face.

“Are you hurt?” she asked, her voice calm and comforting, but also filled with great weariness.

Applebloom sat up and shook her head. She opened her mouth, trying to say something, but Silver had already turned away from her. She watched in awe as the light around the bracelet grew stronger. A small silver cloud formed in front of Silver, growing fast until it was the same size as the cloud she had seen her on before.

Silver turned her head to Applebloom. “You shouldn’t be outside, get back home now. …please.”

“Wait, why…”

“APPLEBLOOM! Get away from her!”

Applebloom turned around and smiled. “Big sis’! Ya’ve found me!”

Applejack galloped past her and placed herself between Silver and the filly. She put on an aggressive stance and glared at Silver with narrowed eyes. “You…” she growled.

Silver shrugged and took a step back from the threatening sight of the enraged earth pony. She bit her lip, asking herself why she didn’t leave faster. Now she had to deal with one of these ponies again. This one seemed even more eager to attack her than Rainbow Dash had. She hated it.

“Big sis’ what are ya’ doing? She sa… “

“Stay behind me Applebloom. She’s dangerous!”

Twilight finally reached the scene, panting heavily. Her gaze immediately fell on the pegasus. “Who’s that?”

“Silver…” Applejack hissed as response.

“What?” Twilight narrowed her eyes, soaking in every detail of the Pegasus before her. She stood there, her dark blue coat soaked with rain water. Her wings were folded on her flank, though Twilight could see that one of them seemed to be injured. Behind her a little silver colored cloud hovered a few inches above the ground. Her gaze fell upon the glowing bracelet. It glows just like a unicorn horn! Could that mean… “So, Applejack and Rainbow Dash are right! You are responsible for the storm!”

Silver shrugged, taking a step back, her tail touching the cloud. It was hard enough to face the orange earth pony, a unicorn will make things much more complicated. “Please go home. I don’t want anypony to get hurt.” She said with an unsteady, weak voice.

Applejack stance didn’t change, but Twilight’s ears perked up. “You want what? What do you mean? Why are you doing this?” she shouted.

Silver looked to the ground and sighed, water running down her face, dripping to the ground. To Twilight it almost seamed that she was crying, but she quickly dismissed this thought as imagination, the water clearly originated from the rain.

Silver’s head jerked back up. Her sad expression replaced by a stern determination. “I do what I must, and I won’t stop no matter what you say or do!” With her last word, the stormed gained strength, the rain poured down more relentless and a lightning struck down in the distance.

“But why are you doing this?”

“Because I won’t let anyone suffer the same way I suffer!” Silver took a quick jump backwards, landing on top of the cloud.

“What?” Twilight and Applejack shouted in unison.

“Big sis’, Twilight, please stop! She sa… “

“Rainbow Dash didn’t understand. You wouldn’t understand either.”

“Rainbow Dash? WHAT DID YA’ DO TO HER?” Applejack shouted, galloping forward towards Silver. The cloud quickly moved upwards out of her reach, the unexpected move knocked her off balance. She landed hard on the wet and muddy ground.

“Whatever reason you have to do this, you need to stop this storm!” Twilight shouted.

“I can’t stop now. I need more time, only a little more…” The cloud quickly moved away, gaining height with every passing second.

Twilight concentrated, her horn glowing in multiple layers. This may be her only chance to stop whatever Silver was doing! She reached out with her magic, trying to get hold of the cloud and pull it back down. As her magic reached the cloud, the light from Silver’s bracelet grew brighter, until it was nearly blinding everyone that looked up at her. A shockwave erupted from the bracelet. The loud bang ringed in Twilight’s ears, waves of pain shot through her horn. She fell to the ground, panting heavily, the light around her horn fading slowly.

“What happened?” Applejack asked as she sat down besides the exhausted unicorn, her voice still growling in anger.

“I… don’t… know…”

They both looked up, but there was no trace of Silver left.

Applebloom sat beside them, a pained expression in her eyes. “Why did you attack her? She saved me!”

Twilight and Applejack both stared at her in surprise and confusion.

Silver fell down on her cloud, feeling more exhausted than ever before. Every muscle in her body screamed for rest. At least, it distracted her from the pain in her right wing.

She stared down at her bracelet. It still glowed, although less intense than before. “What exactly happened back there?” She asked it, as if it could answer all her questions. I couldn’t. She still had no idea what happened. Although this was no surprise considering she didn’t know that much about magic. To her magic was nothing she could really grasp or understand; it was just a warm feeling that flew through her body whenever she used it. Not that she could do that much with it anyway, aside from that one cloud creation and controlling magic she didn’t knew any spells. Even if she knew more spells, she doubted she would be able to cast any of them.

The glowing of the bracelet flickered, getting weaker before returning to its normal glow. It felt strange. Like a cold chill, running through her whole body from her mane to the tip of her tail. What did this mean? She didn’t know.

She raised her head. It was getting dark, the rain still poured down. Her thoughts trailed off towards the ponies down in the town. In her mind she saw Rainbow Dash, leaping at her in furious anger. She saw Applejack, standing before here, growling, shouting and angrily digging on the ground. She saw the purple unicorn mare, using her magic for whatever she had tried to do.

Silver closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. “Am I really doing the right thing? Making all them worry for the sake of one filly?” She closed her eyes, tears flowing down her face, joining in with the endless rain. “No, I can’t stop. They wouldn’t want me to stop.” Her mind drifted away again. Pictures flashing before her eyes; a dark purple unicorn stallion, smiling at her before turning around; a green pegasus mare, with saddened eyes smiling at her; a tombstone in the middle of blooming garden.

She closed her eyes tight, banishing the thoughts and pictures. The storm drowned the sound of her weeping, as she slowly drifted into uneasy sleep.

Rainbow Dash rubbed her chin, trying to distract her from her burning headache. Something about her prison had changed, she could feel it. She didn’t know what it was, she didn’t why she felt it, but she knew there was something. Maybe even a way out of this.

Scootaloo rushed to her side, balancing an apple on top of her head. “Here Rainbow Dash, the apple you wanted.”

Rainbow took the apple, slowly circling it in front of her eyes, judging the quality, before taking a bite. “It’s good, thank you.”

“Anything for you, Rainbow Dash.”

Dash still couldn’t believe it. She was trapped in here for almost three days now. Three days trapped in a cloud. A cloud! Rainbow dash, the fastest flier in Equestria, trapped in a cloud for three days. What would the Wonderbolts think of her, if they ever learn about this?

She took another bite of the apple. At least Silver hadn’t trapped them without food. She chuckled a little at the thought that the buckets full of apples looked exactly like the ones that were stolen from Applejack a few days ago.

“Hey Scootaloo, bring me another apple.”

The filly smiled bright and ran off towards the food storage.

Rainbow slowly stepped towards the cloud wall of her prison. Her headache got worse as she remembered her first try to break through it. However, this time she was not trying to break through, instead she was searching for something that would explain that feeling she had, the feeling that the wall had changed.

“I wonder if…” she muttered to herself, lifting her front leg and slowly knocking on the cloud before her. Then she started beating the wall with more strength. Whenever her hoof hit the wall, it resulted in a faint metallic sound.

*Clonk *Clonk *Clonk *Clonk *Clonk *Clonk *Clonk *Clonk *Clonk

Then, suddenly, on her tenth strike the sound didn’t came. Rainbow lifted her hoof and looked at the wall. Curious she hit it again, at the same point as before.

*Clonk

“Strange…” she muttered, hitting the same spot again.

*Clonk *Clonk *Clonk *Clonk *Clonk *Clonk *Clonk *Clonk

There! On her tenth hit, the sound was different again. She looked at the wall more closely. Where her hoof had hit the cloud, a small crack was visible.

“Aha! Now that is something I can use for a cool escape plan…” she muttered to herself, hitting the wall again and again.

“Ah don’t get it.” Applejack exclaimed, stomping on the library floor in frustration.

“Oh darling, it’s really easy. You see, the fabric I used for these is very special. Similar to the material used for umbrellas, the water does not go through it, instead it just flows down and your coat won’t get wet.” Rarity answered.

“Nah, Ah ain’t talking about that fancy raincoats of yours. Ah’m talking about Silver.”

“Oh… She’s the one controlling this horrible storm, right? She’s probably also responsible for whatever happened to the pegasi, right? That makes her a pretty awful pony, does it not?”

Applejack shook her head. “There’s more t’ it.”

“Applejack is right. She looked sad, and she said she does this because she needs to and not because she wants to.” Twilight said.

“And she saved Applebloom.” Applejack added, looking to the stairs leading to Twilight’s bedroom where Applebloom was sleeping now.

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Okay… but that leaves the questions ‘Why’ and ‘How’ she does this.”

“Oh, we know the ‘How’… sort of. Ya’ saw her bracelet too, didn’t you Twilight?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, it’s obviously magic, though that shouldn’t be possible, she’s a pegasus after all, and I’ve never heard of magic bracelets too. Well, at least not of ones with magic this powerful.” She turned her head towards a bookshelf. A thought crossed her mind. “Wait, I have read about something like this… what was the book called…” she fell back on her haunches, lost in thought.

“Do we need to look through every book again?” Applejack asked, clearly uncomfortable with the thought.

“Maybe…” Twilight muttered in response.

Rarity stepped to her side. “Twilight, darling, I’m sorry but I don’t think I’ll be a great help with that. I wasn’t able to find anything when the books were ordered inside the shelves. I don’t think I could find anything in this mess.” She looked around, pointing at the piles of books that filled most of the library. “Besides, I can’t focus on anything with all the dust in the air. It’s just dreadful.”

Twilights ears peaked and she looked at Rarity. “Wait; can you repeat what you just said?”

Rarity blinked, obviously confused. “It’s just dreadful?”

“No, the sentence before that one.”

“I can’t focus on…”

“Focus! Of course! That’s the answer!” Twilight happily exclaimed, clopping her hooves together.

“I beg you pardon but: the answer to what?” Rarity asked in utter confusion. She had never heard the term before.

“It’s something I’ve read about in my time in Canterlot. Though it’s pretty rare, I’m sure I’ve seen a copy of the book here…” Twilight looked over the mountains of books, her cheerful expression fading fast “… somewhere.”

“Theories Of Magical Foci, third pile from the right, seventh book from the bottom.” Pinkie Pie chirped cheerfully as she hopped through the door into the library, leaving a trail of rain water behind her. She wore her umbrellahat and balanced a big basket, also protected by an umbrella, on her back. Rarity rolled her eyes, Applejack had one of her hooves on her forehead and just shook her head.

“Pinkie Pie? How do you… nevermind, I’m not sure I really want to know.” Twilight said before heading to the pile of books. Pinkie just giggled behind her, dropping the basket in the middle of the room. She took out a muffin, flipped it in the air, and caught it with her mouth.

“Where did ya’ get these?” Applejack asked, peeking into the basket. There were only a few muffins inside, raising the question why she would use a basket of this size to carry them around.

“Oh, they’re just leftovers. You see, there’s this poor sick filly in the hospital and her parents were forced to stay here with her because of the storm though the really needed to leave because of some important thingies and I thought they may be sad and I thought I should make something to cheer them up and then I made a whole basket of muffins for them.”

Applejack looked at Pinkie, trying to process what she just said. She put a hoof on her chin, her eyes half shut in thought. “That means…”

Before she could finish the thought, Twilight returned from the pile of books, a triumphant smirk dominating her face. She levitated a book at her side. “Theories Of Magical Foci,” she read the title out loud. Pinkie giggled behind her, earning confused looks from every other pony in the room.

“What? The title is funny!” She answered cheerfully before chewing on another muffin.

Twilight frowned and opened the book. To her surprise a sealed envelope stuck on the first side. “What is this?” Curious and careful she took it out and broke the seal and peeked inside. It contained two folded sheets of paper. She used her magic to pull out one and slowly unfolded it. “Strange, it’s a letter. I wonder why it was in there.”

“What does it say?” Rarity asked.

Twilight cleared her throat and started to read the letter aloud.

“My dear old friend

“If you read this letter, it means the package arrived safe at your library. I’m sorry I can’t bring the book back in person, but things have happened and you will probably never see me again. I also apologize for ripping the page out of your old tome of weather spells, I’m sure you have noticed it. I know you had warned me, but I couldn’t let this chance go to waste. It doesn’t matter anymore. You will find the page in the same envelope as this letter.

“I don’t have much time, but we know each other long enough that you deserve an explanation. I’m sure you remember my wife, Green Feather… my sweet Green Feather. I’m sure that you also remember her condition. I had hoped to use this cloud creation spell to help her fly again, but I failed. I wasn’t able to cast it, no matter how hard I tried.

“I left them again, searching for another way to let her dream come true. Things didn’t go well. As I returned home nearly a year had passed and neither my beloved Green Feather nor my sweet, little angel was there. All I found was a gravestone in the middle of the garden. I had failed them both. I couldn’t be there when they needed me the most.

“I asked every pony in town about the whereabouts of my little angel. They said she ran away and that she gave herself the guilt for what happened to her mother. Although no pony could tell me what exactly had happened. Some of them even told me how glad they were that the little feathered freak finally left. I still can’t believe it.

“I’m sorry old friend, this will be the last you will hear from me, at least until I found my little silver angel. She’s out there somewhere, alone… she needs me… and I won’t give up until I find her.

“Goodbye old friend

“Purple Shade

“P.S. inside the envelope you will find a picture of my little angel. Should you ever come across her, please tell her that I’m sorry and that I love her.”

Twilight stared at the letter and the envelope in front of her. Silence filled the library as she slowly pulled out the second sheet of paper; a third, smaller than the others, fell out and onto the floor. Slowly she unfolded the page of an old tome. Just like she thought, the second page of the Living Clouds spell they had discovered the other day.

“Twilight, you might want to take a look at this.” Rarity said, pointing towards the paper on the floor.

Curious Twilight lifted it with her magic. Her jaw dropped as she took a closer look. “Oh my…”

“What is it Twi?” Applejack walked to her side, peeking at the picture. It was the Picture of a little filly, around the age of Applebloom, with a dark blue coat and a silver and purple colored mane. A silver bracelet hung loose around her right foreleg. “Gosh darn it…”

“What is it? Do you know this filly?” Rarity asked.

“Yes, it is Silver.”

Silver awoke to the violent shaking of the cloud she lay on. Something was wrong, the rain was more intense than before and the lightning came more often than it should. Every bolt almost instantly followed by another, turning the dark night bright as the day. Silver’s ears peaked up and her eyes widened in shock. The storm shouldn’t be this fierce!

She looked down to her bracelet. It’s usually constant glow was unsteady and flickering, changing from bright light to barely noticeable in the blink of an eye. Silver tried to focus on the magic flowing through it. Her mane tingled and she could feel uncontrolled energy rush through her body. She knew what this meant.

This was bad. No, this was worse. She was losing control.