Chapter 5: Dumbbell

The employees at the weather factory in Cloudsdale were in a grim mood. The news of war and brought with it a sense of fear that none of them had ever experienced before. One thing could be said for it, though; it was good for the factory.

All of Equestria was suddenly ordering more clouds for the use of cloud cover. The workers at the factory were double-timing and the manager had hired twenty-percent more workers to help the factory keep up with the Earth pony's and unicorn's demands.

Dumbbell woke up early two days after the bombings and got ready for work. Everyone was on overtime these days.

Half an hour later, dressed in his uniform and hard hat, he clocked in and started collecting moisture.

He'd only been working for a few minutes before alarms started ringing.

A shiver of fear shot up Dumbbell's spine as he dropped the load of moisture he'd been about to take upstairs to Rainbow Development.

A growing sense of dread filled a pit in his stomach. He and several others raced toward the window. It couldn't happen here, could it?

But hanging there, clear as day, was the war balloon he'd read about in the newspapers. It was bright crimson with a white lion paw stitched on the side. Pegasus ponies were fleeing from the ominous sight, screaming as they soared away.

Before they could make it off the clouds, though, the entire city was surrounded by armored griffins with wings spread wide and sinister looking swords and spears.

The griffins herded the pegasus ponies back onto the clouds.

The alarms were suddenly silenced and the lights went out. Everything was dark except for the light streaming through the windows.

In a blur, Dumbbell and the other workers were surrounded by the griffins, looking lethal in their golden armor. The griffins forced the pegasi out of the building.

Once outside, Dumbbell and the other workers were forced to line up with the rest of Cloudsdale. They were in one massive crowd, and Dumbbell was near the front of it.

"Citizens," came a voice, and Dumbbell looked up to see a Griffin flying high above them, speaking into a megaphone. "Do as you are told and no harm will come to you."

To Dumbbell, the entire scene looked ridiculous. They easily had the griffins out numbered four to one, but everyone was listening to them.

A couple of griffins were approaching on Dumbbell's left. His heard pounding in his ears, he leapt at them in a burst of adrenaline. He knocked the spears from their hands with his powerful legs and wings, and then he stamped them against the clouds. Losing all sense of thought, he pounced on them again and again until they were bloodied and bludgeoned. He completely ignored the other pegasi ponies in the crowd begging him to stop.

Dumbbell couldn't ignore the spear thrust into his wing joint, though and he whinnied in pain. He turned and was about to strike again, but he realized more griffins were rushing over to him, all their spears pointed directly at his wings.

The griffin with the megaphone was among them. He set the megaphone in and leaned in close to Dumbbell's ear and whispered. "Do you know what I call a hero?... Someone who gets other people hurt."

The griffin barked something in a different language, and two more griffins approached them, holding a terrified looking pegasus foal between in their claws. The lead griffin said something else, and Dumbbell realized what was about to happen, only too late.

"No!" he shouted, but he couldn't stop it. The griffins twisted the colt until Dumbbell heard bones snapping. "Please!" Dumbbell shouted with tears in his eyes. The lead griffin waved his claw and the other two dropped the poor pony.

"Paralyzed," said the lead Griffin. He flapped his wings and flew up above the crowd of gathered pegasus ponies. "Every time one of you revolts, another of your children will be hurt. We will not be so merciful after we've run out of foals."