//------------------------------// // Overstorm II // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// Howling was a good descriptor for how the wind up here was. Turbine was another. Of course the most fitting word was also the most obvious: Hurricane. Up here in the thick of the moving clouds with the unchained wind blowing at max speed, Rainbow Dash could get a good feel for how traveling through the rest of the storm was going to go. Especially since it was without question going to get stronger and stronger the deeper she went. Rainbow Dash was still confident in her ability to get through it, since right now she floated above one of the mountains and was able to maintain her position without being swept away. It took a bit of effort to fight the wind but not enough to bother her. And now she could fly freely and undisturbed. Rainbow Dash tensed up her muscles, she prepared her wings and held out her hooves in front of her body, with the wind whipping around her she smiled. “Full speed ahead,” the blue pegasus said and zipped forth with enough speed and power to blow away the clouds around her and temporarily disrupt the wind of the storm. This was how a pegasus should always fly. Totally free, going all out, nothing but you and open sky. It was heaven for Rainbow Dash to be able to fly like this. Even with the wind tugging at her she just saw that as a match between her and the elements, nothing to take away from her joy of flying to her wings’ greatest ability. She had to flap those feathered appendages hard but it was well worth it, this brief moment she was giving herself didn’t just give her knowledge about the storm or get her further into it in quicker time than flying below would, it also just felt good. And sometimes you needed that simple enjoyment. The practical reasons she was doing this for were still real but now that she was up here doing this she realized it didn’t compare to just being able to briefly enjoy herself. It was something so good for her mental state and attitude. At the speed she was going she cleaved the wind and clouds in front of her and was practically inside her own protected cone of wind. The force from the speed she was going created a long trail in the clouds that even the wind from the storm didn’t blow away immediately. She couldn’t help but be pleased with herself as she effortlessly tore through these clouds and the heavy spiraling winds of the hurricane. She was a rocket heading towards the center and nothing could stop her. If she knew exactly how big the storm was she’d just fly like this the whole way through, if possible, but since she could only estimate it and she didn’t know just how fierce it would get closer to the center she wasn’t going to risk it just yet. If she had to go all out again in the future she would but at the moment this brief flight at near top speed was enough. She could tire herself out on accident and be stuck up in these powerful winds and dense clouds if she didn’t descend within the next hour. The descent would have to be careful too until she could start seeing stuff again. Right now her “vision” was a mess of gray and black clouds and she couldn’t hardly see ten feet in front of her. If Rainbow Dash stayed here without pushing forward at full speed she might get blown off course without realizing. There would be no way to tell what direction she was going in so she had to get back lower where she had vision when she dropped speed. That would also keep her from having to fight against the wind too much to maintain her position. She made her gradual descent while slowing down at the same time. Mountains became easier to see and react to the lower she went and soon enough she was back to snaking around peaks and eventually curving around and flying by their sides again. By the time she was at a casual flying speed the wind had become closer to an annoyance than anything, not something she had to worry about anymore so long as she kept flying like normal. She was at the altitude of about halfway up the mountains with the rocks and valleys between them filling up the landscape below and nothing but more jagged peaks and summits in front of her. The visibility had cleared up—relatively speaking—and she could see a decent distance ahead of her again. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and glided onward, pretty certain that she hadn’t gone off course at all and was still moving directly north. “Blehhhh, I’m already getting bored of flying through this storm. Everything’s the same! Give me something exciting!” Rainbow Dash yelled out to the windy mountain range. “Come on! What’s in here?! There has to be something up with this storm, right?” She continued on like that with a bored look on her face for a good while. Things were getting steadily darker too, a combination of the day getting late and her traveling deeper into the storm. She didn’t want to stop just yet to find a place to bunker down for the night so with a click of her tongue she sped towards the next mountain. This mountain’s entire east side looked like it had collapsed in a rockslide, creating a gaping hole like a half-eaten apple. Dash passed by it and looked up at the top of the mountain. Half of the peak hung perilously over nothing, it was a miracle of rocks that the entire thing didn’t fall. When she got to the backside of the mountain she saw that the bottom of it opened up into a canyon flanked by two high cliffs and smaller mountains on the east and west sides. Since that canyon should be completely, or almost completely, protected from the wind, Rainbow Dash decided to duck inside it for the moment and use it to go as far north into the storm as she could. It was only when she got closer and flew down in that she saw something in the canyon. Right in the middle of the canyon, close to the southern edge where the mountain stood from, there was a huge chain coming out of the ground. A positively massive metal chain going right up into the sky. Rainbow Dash had to investigate it. This was the first sign of life or pony made anything she had seen since she had left the Empire. Flying right up to it she was able to hold her position thanks to the lower wind strength in the canyon so she could check it out all she wanted without having to be bothered by anything else. “This thing’s huge...” she raised an eyebrow as she flew around the chain a couple of times. Each link was as big as her entire body. Tapping one with her hoof it only gave back a dull thud, totally solid and very strong. “Wow.” Now the question was though: How was it shooting straight up into the sky? Rainbow Dash looked up, she could see the chain continue climbing up into the clouds and the heavier wind for about a hundred more feet before she lost vision on it. There must’ve been something up there holding it in place… or perhaps the wind itself was strong enough to pull the chain up? But then it wouldn’t be straight, it would be getting pulled to the east. There had to be something at the end of the chain if she went higher. Looking down now she saw the chain didn’t even actually stop at the bottom of the canyon, it went into a hole that looked like it was drilled or dug into the ground. The hole was ringed with metal as far down as she could see when she dove in closer to look at it but it was impossible to tell how deep it actually went and how much longer the chain was. “What the hay is up with this thing?” Rainbow Dash scratched her head as she stood beside the hole. She could maybe fly up to see if she could find what was at the end of the chain… but she had no idea how high up it went and she knew that it would at the very least be at an altitude where the winds got really strong again. Since she was already trying to not exert herself anymore today it might not be a good idea. Not until she found some sustenance and could make sure she wouldn’t run out of energy in the middle of this storm. And there was no telling just how much time it would take to get to the top in the first place either. So despite her desires for something different and exciting this was actually going to have to wait for now. Rainbow Dash frowned and flew off deeper into the canyon, resuming her flight north and into the center of the storm. The canyon extended as far as she could tell and it didn’t look like it was ending anytime soon. It also kept going perfectly straight, almost like it was purposefully dug out like this instead of forming naturally. Whatever, that just made things way easier for her. She wasn’t going to complain and look a gift pony in the mouth. It still annoyed her that she couldn’t do anything about that chain. She really had no idea what it was for and it just made her super curious. But nobody else was around, nothing else was there, and it might’ve gone up for miles for all she knew. It was such a weird and unexpected thing for her to see and she just had to fly past it. Why couldn’t there have been like a castle or fortress or something here? That would’ve been way cooler. Instead now what? She was just going back to flying like normal but now she had to deal with some extra disappointment. Couldn’t there at least have been a sign explaining what that chain was? Fine. At least when it got later this canyon would make a good place to stop in for the night. But she still wanted to see if she could find some kind of food or water or any other buildings in here before she turned in. So she’d at least keep flying for another hour or two. Rainbow Dash bit her lip as a thought occurred to her. “You know I can’t actually see that much else down in this canyon… It’s protecting me from the wind but I might be missing a whole bunch of stuff up on top of it.” She frowned, mulling over her choices. “Ugh! Forget about playing it safe. I’m going up!” The pegasus shot up above the walls of the canyon and was instantly assaulted by a much stronger wind than what she had been fighting against before she dipped down here. Seems the fact she had traveled in deeper to the storm meant she had to contend with wind like this now. Now it was practically like a high-powered fan was blowing directly against her, trying to push her away and make her tumble off into the sky. Dash had to grit her teeth and force her way straightforward less she be dragged off course. The clouds had also gotten much denser and difficult to see through, sitting right at ground level and just going on and on. She would’ve welcomed it a little bit if there was some moisture in the clouds that she could squeeze out for a drink but despite their stormy look they felt unnaturally dry when she passed through them. Just one more weird thing about this crazy huge land hurricane. She wobbled a bit inside the intense winds and had to beat her wings harder than normal while looking around to see if there was anything else out of place like that chain around here. This was kind of a bother since she didn’t want to have to exert herself like this right now. But playing it safe didn’t suit her and after seeing that chain she didn’t want to miss anything else. Unfortunately there was either nothing around or the clouds were too thick for her to see through. So all Rainbow had was a difficult fight with nothing gained so far for it. Rainbow lifted a hoof to the left side of her face to block the billowing wind and kept going on. At least she was still making progress north or the storm wouldn’t have gotten stronger like this. “Keep it coming!” She yelled. “I can take anything you throw at me! It’s just some dumb weather!” Rainbow’s boasting disappeared on into the nothingness of the storm. But maybe she should have been quiet. A rumbling came from deeper inside the storm, the sound of thunder gathering. It was the first sign of anything like that she had heard or seen in this storm and it was getting louder and more frequent the further in she traveled. Flashes of lightning then started to occur, clouds in front of and around her briefly becoming illuminated by their strikes, Rainbow Dash couldn’t see them directly, only silhouetted through the clouds. “Okay, so now you’re acting up?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at the storm in question. The storm merely growled louder in response and a blast of wind hit Rainbow Dash. From the front. A random jet of air blew into her face that was almost completely at odds with the direction of the other winds in the storm and the way it was turning. It’s like something farther in the center knew she was there and was trying to blow her away. “What’s going on now?!” Rainbow wondered in confusion as she fought against the dual streams of wind attacking her. It was another steady blast of wind even more powerful than the wind coming in from the left, it would blow her backwards and back south if she didn’t keep fighting hard against it. Rainbow Dash flew up and down in steady waves to see if the wind would get weaker depending on her position but it felt exactly the same no matter where or how she flew. It didn’t make any sense, there shouldn’t be a competing wind in this hurricane like this. The winds should all be going one direction and yet here she was faced with something clearly trying to keep her away from the center. Weirder still it didn’t affect the clouds, they all kept going in their counter-clockwise motion as if this blast bearing down on Rainbow Dash didn’t exist. Maybe the wind coming in from the north only followed her and wasn’t hitting anything around her? Or maybe something was perfectly controlling how all this wind and clouds moved. Whatever it was she’d get to the bottom of it when she made it to the middle of this hurricane. Like she said, there was absolutely no way some storm would get the better of her. Even one like this. The rumbling noise of thunder got louder, becoming a complete cacophony in her ears, so loud she couldn’t hear herself when she spoke. There were more flashes of lightning from deeper on in and then as quickly as blinking an eye, Rainbow Dash found herself in the middle of a downpour. Well, perhaps downpour was the wrong word. It felt like the rain was coming parallel to the ground with the wind and blasting into her face and front, drenching her as easily as a monsoon. Rainbow Dash yelped in surprise when it first started to hit her and faltered in the air. Only her quick reflexes and senses saved her from being blown away. She managed to recover and despite the steady stream of rain coming at her plodded on through the storm. But any chance of this being “natural” was thrown out the window now. Rain could most certainly blow sideways thanks to the wind but having it come out all of a sudden when the rest of the air was so dry, in a different direction from the majority of the wind out here, just didn’t make any sense. This hurricane didn’t want anybody getting to the center of it. Rainbow Dash couldn’t fathom the reason but she knew it to be true. She shivered as the rain kept coming at her, not letting up for a second. With the cold of the north it could be bad to stay wet like this. Thoughts of turning around or diving low and hunkering at the ground went through her head but she stubbornly ignored them. Now it was a challenge and she’d be really ticked off if she let the bad weather beat her. Lose? No way. It wasn’t as cold here as it had been in other places in the True North and as long as she kept flapping her wings and had a heart full of adrenaline she wouldn’t freeze. It didn’t feel good to be soaked like this though, her feathers, mane, coat, all of it was heavy with rain and it was making her flight even more difficult. Just as she was fully adjusting to the rain and the wind and getting back to a steady flight through the storm, something new happened: Hail. It came in with the rest of the wind from the left, smacking into her side like a constant pelting of tiny pebbles. The hail was barely the size of corn kernels but it was just as unrelenting as the rain. Pinprick after pinprick ran across her legs, side, left wing, and the unfortunate side of her face that was turned to the hail. Should she be happy that it wasn’t bigger? She had the feeling that if she opened her mouth to taunt the storm some more it would just get worse. But she didn’t have to say anything. The hail and rain wore on her and the wind kept getting stronger the more she flew. Lightning and thunder erupted from inside the storm, all of it shouting at Rainbow Dash that she wasn’t getting any further. Despite her best efforts the combined barrage and the onslaught of powerful wind from two different directions was too much for her now. Her wings couldn’t keep up with what the storm was throwing at her and another gust coming down from the north blew her backwards. Rainbow Dash grunted and tried to recover but once she was in the tumble she found it impossible to get out of the jet stream. The strong air current from the north carried her back and back with her wings stuck open and Dash unable to close or move them with the powerful wind pressing against them. She was thrown like an unfortunate piece of paper caught in the breeze. “Arghhhhh!” Dash helplessly yelled in frustration as she was carried away from the storm’s center.