The Weather Factory, at the Front Door

The two looked at the door, then each tried to push it open. Then, when that failed, they tried pushing it together.

When the door refused to budge, the earth mare and the pegasetta backed away from the door; and Scootaloo turned to her companion and said, “This doesn't make any sense. It's not like anypony's gonna break into the weather factory and steal a lightning bolt, or any weather-generating equipment, or anything like that.”

Pinkie, looking down at her companion, said, “Maybe we should knock?”

The orange pegasetta shrugged as she answered, “Makes as much sense as the factory being closed. But, it's not as if we have anything to lose.” And, she reached out and lightly tapped on the door.

For a few minutes afterward they waited. Then, when nothing happened, Pinkie reared up on her hind legs and proceeded to pound on the door with her front hooves. This she kept up for maybe half a minute until she'd tired herself out, after which she backed away from the door and dropped down to all fours again.

Worried, Scootaloo said, “I don't understand. The weather factory's always been open. Why would it be closed now?”

The pink earth mare panted for a few seconds before answering, “I don't know, Scootie. Let's go back into town and see if we can't find a place to stay.” And, she proceeded back down the steps and back toward the cloud city.

The crusader positioned herself parallel to the door. She looked at the pink earth mare ambling away, then back at the door. Then, when she looked back at the earth mare, she decided there was no point trying to get into the weather factory anymore, and followed her companion back into the city.

In the Streets of Cloudsdale

While they remembered how successful they'd been at even finding life in the city, still they decided they had nothing to lose by searching for a friendship problem while at the same time looking for a place to stay.

At Pinkie's request, Scootaloo lead the way to where she'd awakened, in the street between the bank and a grocery store. And, while they did see several apartments, each of them made the two ponies feel uncomfortable, like they shouldn't even try to enter those buildings.

When they made the turn to the place where Scootaloo first woke up, to their surprise there seemed to be two ponies very aggressively arguing about ... something. Maybe this was the friendship problem they were supposed to find? But, as they approached, they immediately sensed something wrong, something unnatural, about the situation. And, it didn't help that the sun had moved far enough that the shadows of the buildings were covering not only the streets, but the two arguing ponies as well.

Against Scootaloo's protests, Pinkie decided to approach the two quarreling ponies. When she figured she was close enough, she asked, “Uh, could I ask you a few questions?”

In response, the two ponies turned and glared at her with glowing red eyes.

Suddenly struck with fear, Pinkie started backing away from the two as she called behind her, “Scootaloo, I think we'd better leave, find another street!”

The two ponies with the glowing red eyes kept pace with the pink party pony, and she wasn't sure if they were keeping their distance, or closing the space between them and her.

The crusader immediately took action. But, instead of turning and running away, she ran toward the two ponies. In a second or two, she was between them and Pinkie Pie.

Frightened, Pinkie asked, “Uh, Scootie, what're you doing?” in the most innocent tone she could muster.

The orange pegasetta answered, “It's alright. I'll handle this.”

As Pinkie continued to back away, for some reason she found herself unable to grab the little filly, who galloped ahead of her.

In the mean time, one of the suspicious ponies opened its mouth and growled. And, it was a growl unlike anything they'd heard before. It wasn't low or deep enough to be frightening on its own, but it seemed to echo in a small space. And, the pony that growled didn't shape its mouth for growling, just opened it.

As alarmed as the pink party pony was, she couldn't help but wonder about the bizarre vocalization.

Then, Scootaloo growled back, just before running and tackling the pony that had growled at her.

The tackled pony stumbled back a step or two before regaining its balance.

And, that was another thing. Neither pony seemed to have a discernible gender. Neither Pinkie nor Scootaloo could tell if either of these two ponies were male or female. They began to wonder, or at least Pinkie did, if these two were even ponies.

The other pony took a step toward Scootaloo and swatted at her with a front hoof.

In response, the orange pegasetta jumped, then opened her wings and flapped them, rising higher into the air than her normal jump could take her.

Now more confused by her companion's ability than scared of the two red-eyed ponies, Pinkie stared at her and said, “Scootaloo?”

But, the two ponies opposing them allowed no time to act on their surprise, as the one Scootaloo had attacked proceeded to lunge at the representative of laughter.

Presently, the crusader shouted, “Pinkie, look out!” and aimed a front hoof at the attacking pony.

Obediently, the party pony jumped out of the way of the attack, then turned and galloped off.

Seeing that the earth mare was safe, Scootaloo turned back to the attacking pony and said, “Nopony attacks my friends.”

At that point, a sphere of energy developed in front of the hoof she was aiming at the aggressor. Then, a second later, it leaped off, flying to and exploding in the face of the growling red-eyed pony.

The energy sphere exploded on contact, tearing the pony into debris that flew off in all directions for a second.

Seeing this, Scootaloo had to stop and have a look at the hoof she'd been pointing at the pony, who was now raining in pieces all over the street. How did she do that? Could she do it again?

The other pony, seeing its companion destroyed, growled, then leaped up at the orange crusader.

In response, Scootaloo felt her instincts, if she could call them that, take over as she pointed that hoof at the remaining pony; and another energy sphere developed, then left the hoof, this time consuming and exploding the remaining pony.

As soon as the debris settled, the orange pegasetta descended and once again had a look at the forelimb from which she'd fired those energy spheres. How had she done that? Then she extended a wing and had a closer look at it. How did the feathers to her wings get so long, and how did her wings become so well developed? They must be hers, or they wouldn't be obeying her, right? Right? But, had they been hers all along? No, that was impossible. Her natural wings had always been underdeveloped, never allowing her to fly. These wings that she had now were different. They looked … unnatural. So, if they were not natural, how were they responding to her very thoughts?

Scootaloo decided that was a mystery she could wait to solve. After folding her wings next to her back, she went to work looking at the remains of the two ponies that had attacked, or tried to attack, her and Pinkie. And, there was something else different about those two ponies. Scootaloo watched as the glowing red eyes in the head of one of the ponies darkened to black, after which there was a sound, fast yet somehow constant for a split second, then lowering in tone until it ended. This was not normal for a pony. And, the remains. Scootaloo knew that they should've smelled bad to her, should've been a lot messier than they were. But, when she sniffed at them, they had no smell at all. It was as though they were made of metal, steel or something like that. Scootaloo wondered aloud, “What were these creatures?”

The orange pegasetta was startled to hear a voice, a familiar one, answer, “I don't know, Scootaloo.” Quickly turning, she saw the pink party pony staring at the piles of debris, evidently just as puzzled by the situation as she was.

The crusader sighed before saying, “Let's just get going. We can try to figure this out later.” And, she proceeded past the destroyed ponies, or whatever they were, to the next intersection.

Frightened and confused beyond the point of natural thought, Pinkie silently followed the orange pegasetta.

The two companions reached the intersection, turned, and started ambling along the road.

It took a minute before Pinkie felt herself composed enough to ask, “So, uh, Scootaloo, where did you get those wings?”

The orange pegasetta froze for a moment before answering, “I don't know. I don't even know what happened to the wings I used to have.”

Pinkie sighed before saying, “Well, I don't know about you, but I don't wanna stay out here after dark. We'd better find a place to stay until morning.”

The crusader nodded as she said, “Agreed.” Then she went back to ambling until she happened to notice a building down one street they were passing. More animated than she expected to be, she said, “Hey, why don't we go to that building down there? It looks like a safe place to stay!”

The pink earth mare followed her companion's gaze along the street until she saw a building that stood out from the others. Not unlike the bank, other than being a slightly different color, it was almost like a cave that started behind the nearby buildings. Pinkie didn't like the feeling she was getting from the building, but she had to agree that there was no other place to stay that felt any better. She responded, “Well, alright, if you think that building's best.” And, she followed her companion to and into the building.

In the Weather Factory, in the Shadows

In the near darkness, nopony would've been able to identify the azure coat or the messy rainbow-colored mane and tail of the pegasa who was watching the two ponies from a vantage point of safety, observing them on a monitor while hidden cameras tracked their every movement. But, that didn't stop her from recognizing them as she thought aloud, “Scootaloo, Pinkie, you should've stayed back in Ponyville. Why did you have to come here?” Then, thinking about it further, she said, "Cutie Map, this is your doing, isn't it?" She then pushed a nearby button and called, “Spitfire, Cloud Cover, I want you in here, now!”

A few seconds later, two pegasae, one a mare, orange with darker orange mane and tail with highlights the same color as her coat, and one stallion of varying shades of gray with carbon-gray mane and tail, entered the dark room.

The orange one saluted with a wing and asked, “You called for us, ma'am?”

The pegasa at the controls slowly turned to her visitors and said, “I did. I want you to take the yellow pony and bind her in place in the museum.” Then, after the two visitors vocalized acknowledgement and departed, the azure pegasa turned back to the controls and said, “I'm sorry it had to come to this, Scootaloo. If only you hadn't come, or if the two of you'd just gone back to Ponyville, I wouldn't have to make you do this. But, at least you'll save me the trouble.”