> A Gathering Storm
>  by BritBrony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Storm Shadow trotted along the corridor, quickly reading the nameplates on the office doors as she went along to ensure that she was heading in the right direction.  A quick turn to the right at the next intersection... yeah, this was the corridor.  She trotted along another few lengths, her wings folded against her sides, hooves sinking slightly into the cloud that made up the floor.

She paused for a second to take the opportunity to peek out of the tall windows on her right.  Above Canterlot Mountain, the rainclouds were being assembled for the afternoon’s showers.  She started off again, this time at a walking pace, and shook her head a little at the placement.  Should be stacking a couple of Nimbostratus on top there, she thought, Talk about inefficient. 

She looked back at the doors and came to a hasty stop as she realised she’d reached the door she was looking for.  A quick glance through the window showed the office was empty, but with a gentle knock, she pushed the door all the way open.

“Doctor Thunderhead?  Are you there?”

The office resolutely refused to reply.

With a frown, Storm Shadow looked up and down the empty corridor, slightly nonplussed.

Ms Shadow, the message at her desk had read when she arrived for work that morning. Please see me immediately in my office, Dr Thunderhead.

The University of Cloudsdale was a big place, specialising in all manner of weather production and control.  If Thunderhead wasn’t in his office, she could spend half the morning looking for him.

Hearing a faint voice from further down the corridor, Storm Shadow began walking towards the noise.  She paused outside the ajar door of one of the briefing rooms and cocked a grey ear to try to identify the voices.

“But what about the underlying thermal stresses?  Surely-”

That was definitely Dr Convectus, one of Storm Shadow's old professors.  Perhaps she would know where to find Thunderhead.

“Don’t worry about that,” another voice cut off the teacher.  “You’re thinking too linearly.  Don’t get tied up with Neighvier-Stokes, you need to think outside the box a little.  Here, watch the Delta-T-“

Storm Shadow frowned to herself; she couldn’t think of anyone who knew more about Advanced Thermal Management than Convectus.  There was the sound of chalk scratching rapidly across a chalkboard.

“By Celestia!” came the shocked gasp from Convectus, “You can’t be serious!”

The scratching continued.

“I’d never considered...”  By now, Convectus’ voice had dropped to a reverent whisper.  “You must publish this!  It’ll revolutionize weather control techniques for Type II Thermal Inversion situations...”

There was a ting noise caused by a piece of chalk being spat out and bouncing off the floor.

“No!” said the unfamiliar voice, “You know what I said when I first came to you.  This has to be anonymous, I have to stay incognito.”

Storm Shadow realised with a guilty start that she had been standing there for at least half a minute, eavesdropping.  She tapped the open door and leaned inside, cursing her own curiosity and nosiness but still anxious to see who was talking to her old teacher.

Inside the briefing room, the knock seemed to catch the occupants by surprise.  Convectus span around, the familiar orange pegasus mare ruffling her feathers a little as she turned.  The other occupant of the room was a grey pegasus, a few shades darker than her own coat, with a blonde mane and tail.  She looked up at the interruption, surprise in her golden eyes.  Storm Shadow realised she must be gawping as the grey pony’s eyes drifted in different directions, one fixing her with a stare and the other apparently trying to look behind her at whatever had caught Storm Shadow’s attention.

Caught unprepared, the unfamiliar mare hesitated a moment before remembering the chalkboard behind her, covered in symbols written in curved mouthwriting.  She quickly stretched a hind leg and kicked the board, causing it to rotate around the hinges to show the other side, hiding her recent work.  The effect was slightly spoiled, however, by the fact that the other side was full of similar symbols in the same neat, curving mouthwriting.

“Storm Shadow,” said Convectus, drawing her attention back, "Uh, this is-"

The grey mare cut her off quickly

“Just the mailmare!” she said, grabbing a pair of saddlebags from a nearby table with one wing and slinging them over her back with a practiced motion, making a rapid break for the door.  “Just delivering some mail!”

She gave a slightly desperate grin as she focussed her eyes on Storm Shadow. 

“See you next time, Professor!” she called out as she slid past a slack-jawed Storm Shadow.  Storm Shadow turned to watch the grey flank, adorned by a cluster of bubbles, disappear rapidly around the corner in the corridor, followed by the flowing blonde tail.  It may have been her imagination, but she thought she heard a gentle, whispered curse echo for a second.

“Oh, Muffins!”

“Is there something I can help you with, Miss Shadow?”

Storm Shadow turned back to the briefing room.  She recognised the acid tone in the voice.

“I- I’m sorry to interrupt, Dr Convectus,” stammered Storm Shadow, feeling like a schoolfilly again, “I was looking for Dr Thunderhead?  I got a message and it’s my first assignment and I’m sorry-”

While her grey coat and silver mane were closer to those of her mother than her father, Storm Shadow had inherited his height and gangly limbs, which made her subsequent head bow of shame all the more obvious.  Convectus’ angry visage softened a little and she waved a hoof and sighed.

“Never mind, Miss Shadow,” she replied, “I think he’s down in the conference room.  Come along.”

The two began to walk along the corridor towards the conference room.  After several awkward moments of silence, Convectus turned to Storm Shadow, craning her neck to look up at the younger mare towering a full head’s height above her.

“I trust I can rely on your discretion about what you just saw, Miss Shadow?”

“Discretion, professor?” asked Storm Shadow, puzzled.

“That you won’t speak about what you just saw.  At least, not for now.”

Storm Shadow bit her lip before speaking again

“I’m not sure what I saw, or that anyone would believe me.”

“Miss Shadow, I was there and I’m not sure I would believe you.”
 



 


The flight to Ponyville was rather short, normally a benefit but in this case a little annoying, as Storm Shadow was still wrestling with her instructions and trying to figure the best way to complete her assignment as she approached the town. 

Telling herself that she needed to learn the lay of the land as much as she needed to procrastinate, she performed a long, slow circle around the town, overflying the outlying farms in a gradually tightening spiral as she scanned the clouds for her target.   She paid particular attention to the Everfree Forest, which was surprisingly close to the edge of town.  Everfree was one of the few places in Equestria where there was no control over the weather; the proximity to a controlled area – and one with a town and extensive agriculture, at that – couldn’t make weather control easy around here.  Just because Ponyville was a small district and an even smaller town didn’t mean that being the Weather Team Captain would be an easy job.

She had just about reached a tall circular structure at the centre of town as she reached her decision on the best way to proceed.

A graceful four point landing outside the building – the town hall, unsurprisingly – and a quick conversation with a passerby gave her a vector towards the town library, apparently built inside a hollowed out old tree.  She found herself looking up at the structure a few minutes later.  She’d been all over Equestria in her youth, but this was a new one even on her.

Steeling herself, she knocked on the door, mentally preparing her introduction.  First impressions last and all that, after all.
The door opened and she opened her mouth, only to close it in confusion, as there was nopony there.

“Hi, can I help you?”

Storm Shadow looked down and jumped back a step in surprise.  A small purple and green dragon had opened the door and was looking up at her, expectantly.

“Uh-” said Storm Shadow.  “Well, you’re not Rainbow Dash.”

The dragon froze and stared up at her, eyes widening and slit pupils contracting.  “Oh, no.  She found out, didn’t she?”

“Pardo-”

“No, no, no!” said the dragon, not listening or even noticing Storm Shadow’s confused look.  “It wasn’t my fault, Twilight insisted!  It wasn’t me!”

“I don’t understa-”

The dragon stared up at Storm Shadow and started backing away fearfully.

“I gave back the necklace!  It’s not my fault!  She didn’t have to send a hitpony after me!”

“Hitpony?” asked Storm Shadow, incredulous.

The reptile’s nerve broke and he ran screaming back into the library, out of sight.

The pegasus blinked, not entirely sure she believed what she had just seen.

“Spike?  What the hay is going on?”

The new voice was female and coming from inside the library.  A second later, a lilac face peered around the still-open door.  It was topped with a straight purple mane, parted near a pair of lighter coloured stripes by a unicorn’s horn.

“What’s this about a hitpony?  What’s going on here?  Can I help you?”

Storm Shadow blinked again and looked at the unicorn.

“Well, right species, but wrong tribe,” she said, half to herself. “I suppose that’s progress.”

“Excuse me?”

Storm Shadow shook her head and tried again.  “I’m sorry, I was looking for a pegasus pony named Rainbow Dash.  I was told that I could find her here at the library.”

“Oh,” said the unicorn, coming out from around the door now that she was fairly sure there wasn’t a risk of being caught in a crossfire.  “Are you a friend of Rainbow’s?”

Storm Shadow opened her mouth to answer, but paused, unsure herself of the answer.  “Our parents were friends,” she temporised.  “I’ve only met her a few times.”

The unicorn seemed to take this as a positive answer.

“Well, come on in.  I’m Twilight Sparkle, the librarian.  I’m actually expecting Rainbow to drop by this morning.  Would you like to wait for her here?”

Storm Shadow blinked.  She hadn’t expected the local librarian to be the Element of Freaking Magic.

“Thanks,” she managed to say without stammering.  “I’m Storm Shadow, I’m here from the Royal Equestrian Weather Service.”

“Really?  Well, come on in, I’ll have Spike make us some tea, if you like.”

Storm Shadow stepped inside the tree and looked around.  The library was surprisingly brightly lit by several high windows.	“That would be great, thanks.  Uh, about your... friend?”

“My assistant, Spike.  Yes, I’m sorry about that,” replied Twilight.  She raised her voice, obviously to ensure she could be heard deeper inside the structure, “I’m afraid he’s been reading a little too much from the Esponyage section.”

A few minutes later, and entirely not expected when she got up that morning, Storm Shadow found herself sat in the Library’s kitchen, enjoying a cup of tea with a surprisingly approachable minor celebrity.  The building doubled as a home for Twilight Sparkle and her assistant, who had been coaxed out of his hiding place under the stairs to lend his fire-breathing talents to heating a kettle of water for a perfect cup of tea.  After completing his pyromantic duties, he joined the two mares at the kitchen table and sat sullenly watching Storm Shadow closely in case she suddenly broke out with a lethal case of dragon-bucking.

“So, Spike,” she said, casually.  “You’re a dragon.”

“Well spotted,” he said sarcastically, “Was it the scales that gave it away?”

“You work in a library.”

Spike rolled his eyes and waved his curious forelegs – arms, she was pretty sure they were called – over his head, indicating the building they were sat in. 

“It’s the books, right?  Or maybe the sign outside?”

“You breathe fire?”

The dragon waved his claw again, this time at the kettle, and regarded her as if she was a drooling idiot.

Storm Shadow took a moment to structure her next statement.

“You’re a dragon.  You breathe fire.  You’re a librarian’s assistant.  You work in a large wood structure filled with flammable materials.  And did I mention that you breathe fire?”

This time when Spike left it was more “storming off in a huff” than “running away screaming”. 

“I’m sorry,” said Storm Shadow with a smile, lifting her cup for another sip of the admittedly rather good tea.  “I couldn’t resist.”

Twilight waved her hoof in response, trying her best to stifle her giggles at the look on his face.  “Don’t worry, he’ll get over it.”

She tilted her head a little, as if considering whether or not to continue.

“Is that a Trottingham accent I hear?”

Storm Shadow swallowed her mouthful of tea and nodded.

“We moved around a lot when I was growing up,” she said, “Baltimare, Trottingham, Whinnypeg and now Cloudsdale.  I picked up a few inflections from here and there.  Trottingham was where I went to primary school, though.”

“So, what brings you to Ponyville, if you don’t mind me asking?  Are you here on business or is a personal visit?”

“Mostly business,” replied Storm Shadow, “I’m with the Special Meteorology Bureau, attached to the University of Cloudsdale.”

“Special Meteorology Bureau?” asked Twilight Sparkle, “I don’t think I’ve heard of that one.”

“Well, as the name suggests we work on, well, special cases.  Major weather events, severe storms, tornados, hurricanes, that sort of thing.”

Twilight looked surprised and leaned forward.  “Hurricanes?  But Equestria hasn’t had a hurricane in over four hundred years!”

Storm Shadow smiled indulgently and took another sip of tea.  “You’re welcome.”

“Wow,” said Twilight, sitting back.

“Most of my work isn’t anywhere near that interesting, we spend most of our time dealing with very minor weather patterns so they don’t get a chance to develop.  The ultimate goal is to stop major events before they happen, although it usually ends up that we mitigate rather than eliminate problems,” explained Storm Shadow.  She motioned towards Twilight’s horn. 

 “We’ve even got a pilot program with the Royal University of Canterlot’s Magical Prognostication Department.  The unicorns there are looking into scrying and other ways to look into the future to identify problematic weather systems so we can target them more effectively.”

Twilight nodded in understanding.  “I had no idea pegasi did that sort of thing, but I suppose it makes sense.”

She was cut off from further thoughts when they heard the front door open and somepony enter.

“Twlt!  ‘M bk!”

“Back here, Rainbow,” replied Twilight loudly.

A few seconds later, the cyan pegasus pony trotted into the kitchen, a book clutched in her mouth.  Her eyes widened when she saw the stranger, and hurriedly grabbed the book with her right wing, trying to hide it underneath.

“Daring Do and the Alicorn’s Shadow,” said Storm Shadow, twisting her head a little to read the title poking out from under the blue feathers.

“Uh, yeah,” said Rainbow Dash, slightly embarrassed.

“I preferred Daring Do and the Platinum Crown,” replied Storm Shadow, “but Alicorn was pretty good, too.”

Rainbow Dash lit up at the prospect of meeting a fellow fan, and placed the book down on the table.

“Yeah, I thought it was awesome!  Twilight’s been lending me her copies so I can read the whole series.”

She paused for a moment, looking up at Storm Shadow and cocking her head to one side.

“Have we met?  You look kinda familiar.”

“Several times.  I’m Storm Shadow.  But you might remember me as-“

“’Tormy!” exclaimed Rainbow, her eyes widening.  “It’s been a long time!”

Storm Shadow smiled and held out her hoof for Rainbow to shake.

“’Tormy?” asked Twilight Sparkle, puzzled.

“She was young,” explained Storm Shadow, “She couldn’t pronounce ‘Stormy’.”

Rainbow Dash grinned, bashfully.   “Oh, hey, I went to see your dad last month,” she said, gracefully trying to change to subject.  “I brought him down to meet my friends.  You remember Cirrostratus, right, Twi?”

“Ooh, the Professor from Cloudsdale?  Yes, he was fascinating to talk to.  I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you were related.”

Storm Shadow smiled.  “He did mention that you had called by.  What about your father, Rainbow, have you been to see him yet?”

Rainbow Dash dipped her head, ignoring Twilight’s raised eyebrows.

“I’m not sure I’m ready for that just yet,” she said, kicking her hoof absentmindedly on the kitchen floor.  “Anyway, what brings you to Ponyville?  I’m sure it’s not to talk about family.”

Storm Shadow nodded.  “Yeah, it’s business.  I’m with the Special Meteorology Bureau, and I’m here to talk to you.”

“Wow, you’re a Chaser?” said Rainbow Dash.  “I suppose that’s not so surprising, given the stormcloud-and-lightning-bolt cutie mark.”

Twilight raised a hoof.  “Uh, Chaser?”

“Unofficial nickname for the Bureau, sometimes they call us ‘Storm Chasers’ or just ‘Chasers’,” explained Storm Shadow before she muttered to herself.  “Better than 'Sambas', I suppose.”

“Sorry?”

“Never mind,” said Storm Shadow, quickly.  “So, Rainbow Dash, we need to talk about a special project.  Where’s your office?”

“Ah,” said Rainbow.  “There’s a little problem with the office, the repairs aren’t complete yet.”

“Repairs?”

“Yeah, we had a little accident with the mailmare,” said Rainbow evasively.  “It’s a long story.  We could head up to my place?”

Twilight brightened up.  “Hey, you can talk here if you like, I don’t mind.  Um.  I’d be interested in hearing more about your special project, if you’re allowed to tell me.”

Rainbow shrugged and looked back to Storm Shadow.  “Fine by me.”

Storm Shadow raised her eyebrows in surprise – most unicorns didn’t care much about the nuts-and-bolts of the weather, only whether or not it was going to rain.  “Well, nothing we do is secret.  In fact at some point, we’ll need to make public service announcements about this.”

“Excellent.  Why don’t we use the table in the main library?  I’ll put some more tea on.”  With that, Twilight ushered the two pegasi out of the kitchen and headed over to the stove, apparently deciding to use a more conventional approach to heating water this time.

“The tea will be ready in just a second,” said Twilight, trotting into the library.  “Now, let’s see...”

Rainbow Dash gently shoed Storm Shadow out of the way with a wing as several books, the golden coloured bust of Eponymous the Well-Named and it’s heavyweight pedestal were lit with a purple magical aura and levitated off the main table in the centre of the library to find themselves new homes on the shelves around the walls.

“That should do it,” said Twilight to herself, before heading back to the kitchen to see to the now-whistling kettle.

“Your friend is incredible,” commented Storm Shadow as she wandered over to the table, “so welcoming and, well, friendly.”

“You should have seen her when she first arrived in Ponyville,” said Rainbow Dash, “she’s made some great strides.”

Further discussion was ended by Twilight trotting back into the room magically levitating a tray with a teapot, cups and a plate with several sandwiches on it.  She set it down on the table and the others gathered around.

“This is so exciting!” she said, “Do you mind if I take notes?”

Rainbow Dash facehooved and looked at Storm Shadow, who was trying in vain to suppress a smile.

“Let’s get started.  Ms Sparkle, feel free to record anything you wish unless we ask you otherwise.  Rainbow, let’s start with a simple briefing.  Tell me about your district.”

Rainbow nodded.

“Let’s start with the lay of the land.  Twilight, do you have a map of the valley?”

The unicorn nodded and levitated a large roll of paper from one of the shelves up onto the table.  It unrolled, wrapped in the same lavender glow, revealing a detailed map of the valley in which Ponyville lay.

“OK,” began Rainbow, pointing out the features as she talked.  “Ponyville District borders against Canterlot Mountain District, The Everfree Uncontrolled Zone and Manehatten District on the other side of Dragon Mountain.”

Storm Shadow looked over the map carefully, orienting herself mentally with what she saw on the approach to the town.  She listened as Rainbow Dash continued.

“Cloudsdale is our primary large-scale weather supplier, but we also manage the edge of Everfree, either deflecting incoming clouds or harvesting them for additional moisture when necessary.”

“I didn’t know that,” said Twilight, looking up from the scroll where she was furiously scribbling notes.

“The moist air from beyond the forest itself hits the Everfree Hills and pushes upover, where a lot of the water condenses out as clouds.  Most pass south of the town over here and dump their rain into the watershed formed by the upper valley, that’s why the hydro dam was built up in the hills here.” 

Twilight blinked and looked again at her friend as she finished motioning over the map with her hooves.

“And you call me an egghead,” she pointed out with a smile.

“You are an egghead, Twi,” said Rainbow Dash, “I need to know this stuff for my job.  You learn stuff for fun.”

Storm Shadow smiled.  “You mentioned the dam.  What are the other major water features?”

The cyan pegasus returned her attention to the map.

“The river is one of the tributaries of the River Arion, but the Solar Glory Hydropower Dam was built in the upper valley forming a reservoir here.  The river isn’t really navigable this far up, but follow it all the way down and you’ll end up at Baltimare on the Horseshoe Bay.  We have a couple of smaller drinking- and irrigation- water reservoirs scattered around – Applevale, Meadowgreen and the big one is Highland.”

“How much water do you have on hoof?”

Rainbow thought back to that morning’s weather patrol, trying to estimate how much water there had been in the reservoirs.  “About usual for this time of year, I’d guess.  Maybe half in each of the small reservoirs, Solar Glory is at about thirty, maybe forty percent.  It’s been a dry summer.”

Storm Shadow digested this for a moment, nodding her head.

“So, that’s Ponyville,” said Rainbow, looking over at her.  “What brings you down here?”

Storm Shadow looked up at Rainbow, staring into her rose-coloured eyes.  “We’re going to need a Tornado Lift.”

The surprise and pain in Rainbow’s eyes were suppressed quickly, but they there.

Twilight looked up from her notes again.  “A Tornado Lift?  What’s that?”

Rainbow broke her gaze away from the grey pony who was there to judge her and looked down at the map.  “A Tornado Lift is what killed my mother.”
	
	
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Storm Shadow stepped out into the warm afternoon sunshine, leaving Rainbow Dash some privacy to discuss her mother’s death with her friend.  Storm Shadow had only learned the basics from Thunderhead that morning, although she had taken the opportunity to call by her father’s office at the Academy before leaving Cloudsdale.  At first, Cirrostratus had been reluctant to discuss the matter with her, but after she revealed what she knew and why she needed to know, he had opened up a little about his old friends, both about the mission where Chroma Key had died, and the after effects.

“Rainbow Dash was devastated by her mother’s death, as I’m sure you can understand,” her father had said, “But so was her father.  The two are just too much alike, they’re both stubborn and strong willed, unwilling to face their feelings.  A tragic event like Chroma Key’s death should have brought them together, but instead it drove them apart. 

“Rainbow’s acting out got her kicked out of Flight School; I did my best with the headmaster but even I couldn’t protect her after some of the stunts she pulled.  She fought with her father continually, and eventually upped and left Cloudsdale entirely.  I don’t think they’ve spoken in years.”

Storm Shadow had nodded and looked down at the personnel file in her hooves, complete with CONFIDENTIAL stamped on the cover in red ink.  They spoke of angry and violent outbursts as an adolescent, expulsion from Flight School, and requiring completion of Weather Management training via correspondence course.  Just looking at the paperwork, Storm Shadow could see why the Bureau was worried about Rainbow Dash’s stability, but contrasting against that was her actual exemplary performance as Ponyville District’s Weather Captain – no mean achievement earning that promotion onsidering her record – and of course as one of the Elements of Harmony.  Could these two really both be the same pony?

Storm Shadow shook her head and brought her attention back to the street she was wandering along, heading for the centre of town.  She had to fire off a quick report to headquarters, and with the local weather office out of action, the simplest solution was to catch the afternoon mail to Canterlot. 

A quick stop at the local bakery/cafe - a brightly-coloured structure decorated to look like a gingerbread house - gave her the opportunity and privacy to write a quick note to Thunderhead reporting her progress so far.

In Ponyville.  Initial impressions good.  Will evaluate thoroughly during the fill phase.  Further reports to follow.  Storm Shadow.

She sealed the note in an envelope and addressed it before turning back to the remaining sheets of paper.  After a few moments, she picked up the pen in her mouth and started to write again, this time to her father.  This note was significantly longer.  

While Cirrostratus was not particularly senior in the grand bureaucracy that was the Royal Equestrian Weather Service, he had a surprising amount of pull with the higher-ups from his long tenure of teaching, both at the University and the Academy, as well as significant experience on the practical side of weather control.  When Storm Shadow had announced her intention to follow a career in weather management, he could not have been more proud, but like any good father he occasionally stuck his nose into her affairs.  Now it was time for Storm Shadow to take advantage of his desire to interfere in her business, and she made several requests of him that could help her out, starting with one she knew he wouldn’t be wild about - she needed a Dawn Patrol scout who she could trust.

After she was done, she found the post office just where Twilight’s slightly freakishly in-depth directions had predicted. She dispatched the two letters to Canterlot courtesy of a curly-maned earth pony working behind the counter.

Deciding to give Rainbow a little more time, Storm Shadow wandered around the market in the square outside the post office and bought an apple to snack on.  She was trying to place the oddly familiar-looking earth pony with the Stetson hat who had sold her the fruit, when she heard a gasp from her left and blur of pink flicked across her vision and down an alleyway, leaving a wake that would have made a wind specialist pegasus proud.

“What the hay was that?” she asked a passerby, a cream-coloured earth pony who seemed utterly unperturbed by what had happened.

“Oh, that was just Pinkie,” replied the passerby.  “Don’t worry about it, if you think about it too much it gives you headaches.”

“Headaches?” asked Storm Shadow, puzzled.

“Migraines.  Bad ones,” was the cryptic reply as the passerby wandered off.

Storm Shadow finished her apple, and, with a shake of her head, set off back to the library.

 


 


She tapped on the door and stuck her head inside.  Rainbow and Twilight looked up from the table.

“Come on in, Storm Shadow,” said Rainbow Dash.

She stepped into the library, closing the door behind her with her tail.

“Did you find the post office?” asked Twilight, brightly.

“Yes, thanks, and I sent in a quick report,” responded Storm Shadow.

Rainbow’s visage darkened momentarily at the prospect of being reported on, but she shook it away and turned back to the map.

“OK, so we need a big Tornado Lift – presumably to Cloudsdale?”

Storm Shadow nodded as she approached the table again.  “Twilight, could I perhaps trouble you for another cup of that excellent tea, please?”

Twilight shared a look with Rainbow Dash, and, at the latter’s almost imperceptible nod, smiled brightly at Storm Shadow.
“Sure thing!  I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said, magically lifting the drained cups and teapot back onto the tray and carrying them back out into the kitchen.

“You understand now why I was sent down here,” said Storm Shadow once Twilight was out of earshot.

Rainbow nodded.  “At first I thought it was because I’d been to see the Doc last month,” she replied, “but not quite in that way.”

“Central needs to know that you can do this, Rainbow,” said Storm Shadow.  “You’ve seen the figures; mishaps are rare but you of all ponies know how difficult this can be... if you feel you can’t do it, I can lead this one.”

“That’s not really the Bureau way, though, is it?” asked Rainbow, slightly acidly.

Storm Shadow grimaced.  Rainbow Dash was right, the Bureau definitely tried to work in an advisory role, not a replacement one – they sent representatives to assist in-place teams, providing specialised knowledge where needed.  Replacing a pony already on the job was extremely unusual, and doing so when it was one of the Elements of Harmony would be very... messy politically.  Dr Thunderhead had been very clear about that in her brief that morning.

“No, I’m here to advise and help; my main job on the day will be to observe and take the official wingpower records,” she replied. “Anyway, we can’t lift out of any of the major water bodies in the area, not right now.  First thing we need to do is top them up, and for that we’ll need a major storm.”

Rainbow looked up from the papers on the table and met Storm Shadow’s gaze.  “We’re not scheduled for a major thunderstorm for another three weeks, and that’s supposed to go all the way over the southern fields.”

“Taking water out of the existing cycle won’t do us any good,” she replied, “We need to pull some more in from an external source.  That’s why Ponyville was selected.”

“The Everfree Forest.”

“Exactly.”

Twilight returned with fresh tea a few minutes later to find the two pegasi poring over a larger scale map and discussing prevailing winds and likely paths for rainstorms.  She quickly picked up on their discussions.

“Why horse around?” she asked, “Why not pick the next big cloud pattern that blows in from the Bay and push it up here?”

“Brute force approach, huh?” said Rainbow Dash, “We’d need too much horsepower to get it up here.  We’re talking about relay teams of pegasi to push something large enough to make a dent in our requirements.”

“I see,” said Twilight, rubbing her chin with a hoof, “So you need something a little more subtle?”

Storm Shadow smiled and extended her wings a little, giving her feathers a shake.  She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a sheaf of papers.

“Ms Sparkle, my name is Storm Shadow, I don’t do subtle.”
 




 

A few hours later, helped by Twilight’s prodigious knowledge of and access to the information resources of the library, the two weather pegasi had thrashed out a general plan.  As Rainbow had pored over the long-range weather patrol reports that Storm Shadow had brought along with her, she had dispatched Spike with a small stack of notes to arrange with her team to meet the following morning.  The little dragon had eyed Storm Shadow warily as he left, clutching the pieces of paper in his claws.

“If we’re going to pull this one off, we’re going to need a few good hooves to help out,” Rainbow explained.

Storm Shadow had nodded at that one.  “How many ponies do you have in your team?”

“Not many,” replied Rainbow Dash, “I’ve only got sixteen full-time pegasi plus myself.  I can call on a bunch of part-timers to bring us up to nearly a hundred if needed.”

“Wait a minute – you run this district with just seventeen ponies?” asked a surprised Storm Shadow.

“The part-timers help out a lot,” replied Rainbow Dash.  “You’ve got to remember, Ponyville is primarily an Earth Pony town; there aren’t actually that many pegasi living here.”

Storm Shadow idly scratched an ear with her wing.  So much for plans A, B and C.

“There’s no way we can do this easily with that few ponies,” she said.  “You realise that most districts have more full-timers on shift than you can call on in total?”

Rainbow looked up at her and smiled.  “Don’t count us out just yet,” she replied.   “We just need to be a little smarter.”
At that, the library door opened and Spike walked in, chewing on a small blue gemstone.

“All delivered,” he reported.  “By the way, Rainbow, I ran into Pinkie. She said ‘The usual, small, twenty minutes’.”

 “OK, thanks, Spike,” said Rainbow, returning her attention to the charts as he wandered off into the kitchen.

“What was that?” asked Storm Shadow.

“Don’t worry about it,” replied Rainbow Dash.  The two worked on for a few minutes in silence before she spoke again. 
“Hey, are you hungry?  I think we’ve got the basics sorted here, let’s go get something to eat.”

Storm Shadow nodded her assent and took a moment to gather her papers into the saddlebags by her hooves.  She shrugged them on and followed Rainbow Dash out of the door.

“See you later, Twi!” called Rainbow over her shoulder as the pegasi stepped out of the library.

Storm Shadow opened her wings, ready to take to the skies, but folded them again as Rainbow Dash trotted off along the path.  She hurried to catch up.

“So, where do you recommend?” asked Storm Shadow as they turned into another street.

“There’s a good place a few blocks over, it’s not too far.”

The two trotted in silence, making frequent turns and on at least one occasion, Storm Shadow was sure, crossing their own path.  

“Uh, Rainbow, do you know where we’re going?” asked Storm Shadow, pausing to stare down the cross-street for a moment before hurrying to catch up.

“Hmm?  Yeah, of course, it’s just around this corner,” replied Rainbow, turning into a narrow alley and leading them out onto a moderately busy main street.  Opposite was the large, brightly-coloured cafe that Storm Shadow had visited earlier that afternoon.

“This is Sugar Cube Corner,” explained Rainbow Dash.  “My friend Pinkie would love to meet you.”

With that, she pushed open the door and stood to one side, gesturing for Storm Shadow to enter first.  By this time the sun was nearly set, and while the sky above was still bright, the shadows were long.  Storm Shadow paused as she stepped across the threshold, surprised at the darkness inside.  She pushed aside the niggling at the back of her head that the name Pinkie sounded strangely familiar.

“Uh, hello?” she said, “Are you open?”

The response was a large pink cannonball exploding in her face like a firework.

“SURRPPRRIIISSEEEE!!!”







Storm Shadow came around to find herself staring up at the ceiling of the cafe, lying on her back with all four hooves sticking in the air like an upended table.  Surrounding her view were a series of pony’s faces, looking down in concern.

“Are you alright, darling?” asked a white unicorn.

“An’ she chases after storms, ya say?” commented a more familiar orange face topped with a brown Stetson hat.

“Oh, dear, that was so startling,” said a yellow pegasus.  “Were you startled?  I know I was.”

“OhmyI’msorryIjustwantedtothrowyouasurprisepartysinceyou’renewintownandeveryponyshouldgetawelcomingpartyand-“  That was the pink explosion in pony form, her curly mane bouncing even more than the head it sat atop, and that was saying something.  Thankfully she was cut off by a familiar voice.

“Girls, step back and give her a moment,” said Twilight. “Pinkie, you really shouldn’t go full-on welcome mode like that...”

Storm Shadow shook her head and climbed to her hooves.  “I, uh, hi.  Sorry, I think I might have passed out a moment there...”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Rainbow, holding out a glass of something brown and potent-looking with one wing.  “That’s a surprisingly common reaction to being surprised by Pinkie at a party.”

Storm Shadow took the proffered drink and took a good slug as Dash introduced her friends, trying not to let the burning sensation of the alcohol cause a breakout of coughing.  Bringing her attention back to Rainbow Dash, Storm Shadow could feel her grin crystallising into a rictus about halfway round when she realised that these were the other Elements of Harmony.

Yikes, she thought, so much for a nice, easy first assignment.

She looked around the cafe at the streamers and decorations, then back to the thankfully small group in the room who were welcoming her to town.

This is going to be a long night.





 

Storm Shadow awoke as she usually did, to the sun shining on her face.  With a stretch and yawn, she rolled over and felt the cloud bed give slightly.  It took a moment before she opened one eye, suspiciously.

Where did I find a cloud bed in Ponyville?

She sat up and looked around at an unfamiliar room.  The cloud bed was in fact a cloud sofa, and was placed in the centre of an airy open-plan living space.  The cloud structure looked similar to her house in Cloudsdale, but she was sure she didn’t recognise the place.  She padded over to the large window that dominated the eastern wall and looked down.  Ponyville was spread beneath her like a blanket, the sun just clearing the horizon behind it.

“It’s not a bad view, is it?”

Storm Shadow turned to see Rainbow Dash float down from the floor above, not bothering to use the stairs.

“Where am I?” she asked, already suspecting the answer.

“My place,” said Rainbow.  “You needed a place to stay and I’ve got plenty of room.  You weren’t really in a state to argue last night.  Anyway, we’ve got a bit of time.  You want a coffee before we head down to meet the others?”

“Do you have any tea?” said Storm Shadow, following Rainbow over to the kitchen area.

Rainbow rolled her eyes.  “You’re as bad as Twi,” she commented, busying herself with the coffeemaker before lifting a sloshing kettle onto the hotplate to make a tea for Storm Shadow.

“So, you seemed to enjoy yourself last night,” said Rainbow with a sly grin as she savoured her coffee.

Storm Shadow froze as her memory replayed the previous evening, or at least as much as she could remember of it.
“Uh,” she said slowly, “I seem to have a few gaps...”

“Let me see.  Pinkie threw a surprise party for you at Sugar Cube Corner.”

“I remember.  I seem to recall walking across Ponyville for fifteen minutes to get there, when the last time I made that journey it took less than five.”

“Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash, bashfully, “I needed time to let Twilight and Spike get there before us.  Trust me, I hated going that slow...”

“I also remember almost having heart palpitations when she jumped out like that.”

“That’s fairly common at Pinkie’s welcome-to-Ponyville-surprise-parties.” 

“And... let me get this straight... that was a small party by her standards?”

 “Just us, the rest of the girls and Spike,” confirmed Rainbow.  “Her big parties usually involve the entire town.  Anyway, we got to the party, and then you had a few drinks.”

“A few?”

“You seemed to be a little intimidated by meeting the rest of the Elements of Harmony.”

“Well, forgive me.  You guys have saved Equestria on at least two separate occasions,” replied Storm Shadow, gratefully accepting the hot cup of tea that Rainbow had prepared.

“Eh, three if you include the Dragon.  But that one was mostly Fluttershy.”

“What, the yellow pegasus?  The one who heard I was a Chaser and then hid behind her own mane for the rest of the evening? Didn’t she spend half the party cowering under the table?”

“Yeah, that’s her.  She’s very sweet, really, but don’t cross her.  You don’t want to be on the receiving end of her Stare, trust me.”

“Riiiggghhhtt.  What else happened?  I seem to recall a drinking contest...”

“Yes, with Applejack and Rarity, of all ponies.  Don’t be ashamed of your performance, you kept up surprisingly well, but Applejack has her own still and as for Rarity... well, I’ve not seen any other mare who can down so many Martinis and still keep her wits about her enough to cut amorous stallions to shreds.  Still, be glad Fluttershy wasn’t involved.  That girl can drink a grizzly bear under the table.  Literally.”

Storm Shadow fixed Rainbow with a disbelieving eye as she sipped the tea.

“OK, you’re pulling my cannons, aren’t you?  What else happened?”

“You bet Twilight you could climb the wall of Sugar Cube Corner using only your lips.”

 “OK, now I know you’re lying.”

Rainbow Dash laughed.  “Yeah, OK, you got me.  You were well behaved for the rest of the evening.  Drink up, we’re due to meet the rest of the team in fifteen minutes.”

With a nod, Storm Shadow drank the rest of her hot tea and the pair headed toward the front door.  The two pegasi stepped out onto the cloud outside Rainbow Dash’s front door, taking a moment to breathe the fresh air.  Rainbow pointed to a wide-open green field in the park.

“The team should be there in a few minutes,” she explained.  “I need to swing by Sugar Cube Corner for a moment, I’ll meet you there?”

Storm Shadow nodded and leapt into the air, headed towards the park.  The sun had only been up for an hour or so, but already the little town was showing signs of life, with several of the market ponies setting up their stalls for a day’s trade.  She banked and landed by the athletics track, spotting a few earth ponies and unicorns out for a morning canter or to walk their pets, but no pegasi.

She had turned back towards the town centre, picking out the tower of the town hall in order to get her bearings, when she heard the stallion’s voice behind her.

“Heeeyyyyy...”

She turned to see another grey pegasus, this one with a striped blue-grey mane in a mohawk and matching short-cropped tail.

“Hello?” she said, unsure.

“Hi, you must be the new weather team member,” said the stallion, looking her up and down.  “I’m Thunderlane, it’s a pleasure to meet such a beautiful mare...”

Storm Shadow narrowed her eyes; she couldn’t recall being hit on quite so early in the morning - and definitely not feeling quite so hung over.  She missed out on what was surely going to be an awesome follow-up line (at least in his opinion) when he was interrupted by another voice.

“I wouldn’t let Flitter hear you talk that way.”

The two ponies looked up to see another pegasus land nearby and trot forward.  She had a pure white coat, her straight mane and tail striped a jarring pink-and-green.

“Flitter knows me,” said Thunderlane, slightly huffily.  “I’m a creature of the air, I can’t be tied down.”

The white pony raised an eyebrow.  “That’s not what I’ve heard,” she said, archly.

“Uhh...”

“Yeah, that’s right, smartass, mares talk.  Remember that.”  She rolled her eyes and turned to Storm Shadow. 

“Hi, I’m Blossomforth,” she said, raising a hoof to shake.  “Please forgive Thunderlane, he’s an idiot.”

“Hey!”

Storm Shadow stepped forward and shook her hoof.

“Storm Shadow,” she said, introducing herself.  “You’re Rainbow’s deputy?”

“One of them, yes,” said Blossomforth.  “I lead one of the teams, Cloud Kicker has the other.  The boss leaves most of the day-to-day stuff to us.  That said, she does get involved with some of the more exciting stuff.”

She looked over the unfamiliar mare for a second.

“Let me guess, a Storm Chaser?”

Storm Shadow noted Thunderlane’s ears pricking up at that.  “I can see why you’re her deputy,” she said with a smile.

Blossomforth smiled at the compliment.  “So, we’ve got a special job coming up?”

“I think Rainbow Dash wants to brief the whole team at once,” replied Storm Shadow.

“So, you’re a Storm Chaser then?” asked Thunderlane, stepping forward.  “I’ve been practicing my thundercloud handling, I was thinking about applying to join...”

Storm Shadow looked him over.

“How old are you?” she asked, curious.  “Aren’t you a little young to be a Weather pony?  You look like you should still be in high school.”

“Hey!” replied Thunderlane, a little annoyed.  “I graduated last year.”

Any further discussions were cut short by the arrival of another pegasus, a midnight-blue stallion with a constellation cutie mark.

“Hey, Star Hunter,” said Blossomforth, “this is Storm Shadow.  Looks like we’re in for some fun.”

The stallion was tall and most definitely not just out of high school.  He flicked his head toward her in greeting, and to shift an errant lock of mane from his eye.

“Hi,” he said, “Welcome to Ponyville.”

“Rainbow pulled you off night duty, Star?” asked Blossomforth with a frown.

Star Hunter nodded and stifled a yawn, using a hoof to cover his mouth.

“Excuse me.  Yeah, I was until a couple of nights ago.  She gave me last night off but I’ve not quite reset onto day shift timelines.”  He paused a moment, scanning the skies.  “Speak of the devil...”

Rainbow landed with her usual exuberant style, practically screeching to a halt from a near-vertical dive.  She greeted the assembled ponies and then with a nod led Storm Shadow off to one side.

 “I didn’t think to warn you about Thunderlane.”

“Don’t worry about him,” said Storm Shadow, “I think Blossomforth arrived just in time to prevent him from saying anything truly stupid...  Still, he’s kind of young for this team, isn’t he?”

“What can I say, I like guys with talent,” replied Rainbow Dash, “But yeah, he does need a little experience.  Also, I need to warn you about–”

She was cut off by the surprise in Storm Shadow’s widened eyes and the loud crash from over her shoulder that the grey mare was clearly looking at.  A blur had careened into the waiting weather team ponies, leaving them in a tangled heap on the ground.

“What the hay was that!?” exclaimed Storm Shadow.

“That was almost certainly the fourth member of the team,” said Rainbow Dash, without looking around.
“Ooops, my bad!” came a voice from the tangle of ponies behind Rainbow Dash.

“...yep, that’s her.”  Rainbow Dash brought a hoof up to the bridge of her nose, rubbing it as she seemed to gather her thoughts.  “Come on, I’ll introduce you.”

She led Storm Shadow over to the pile of ponies, which was just starting to untangle itself.  Star Hunter helped Blossomforth up before Thunderlane, revealing a slightly lighter grey mare at the bottom of the pile.  She was a pegasus, grey with a blonde mane, and she looked up and made eye contact with Rainbow Dash and Storm Shadow simultaneously...

“Hey,” said Rainbow.  “I wanted to introduce you to somepony.  Ditzy, this is Storm Shadow, Storm Shadow, this is-“

Rainbow didn’t get a chance to finish the introduction properly, as the blonde mare leapt forward, grabbed Storm Shadow’s forehoof in her own and started shaking it.

“Hi-I’m-Ditzy-Doo-It’s-nice-to-meet-you-as-we’ve-never-met-before-ever-and-my-friends-call-me-Derpy-Hi!” she blurted in what had to be a single breath.

Rainbow watched, baffled.

“Uh, Derpy, I think she’s going to need that hoof back.”

“Oh, sorry,” said Derpy, letting go.  She looked up into Storm Shadow’s eyes, golden irises pleading.

“Um, it’s nice to meet you, Derpy,” said Storm Shadow, “Since you’re right, we’ve never met, you know, before.”

“Oookaayyyy,” said Rainbow, looking at the two grey mares curiously.  “If we can step away from freakytown for a moment...”
She looked around at the whole team.  “Storm Shadow is a Chaser, she’s here to help us with a major unscheduled storm.”

“Oooh,” said Derpy, fixing both eyes on Storm Shadow.  “Sounds like fun.”  

She seemed to remember something, and looked around, spotting a bag on the ground.  She hurriedly grabbed the handle in her mouth and held it up, proudly.  “Anyway, more importantly, I brought muffins!”
 


> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Sure, why don’t you get airborne, I’ll join you in a moment,” said Storm Shadow, scanning the skies.

Rainbow’s face darkened in anger and embarrassment.  The introduction of her team had hardly gone as smoothly as she had hoped, and her desire to get started and show what they could do had been met by a surprisingly indifferent response from Storm Shadow.  She turned her back on the Storm Chaser and struggled to prevent herself from grinding her teeth in annoyance.

“LET’S GO!” she shouted, somewhat unnecessarily.   She leapt into the air followed closely by her squad.  “Form Up!”

Storm Shadow shook her head and looked around towards Cloudsdale, glistening on the horizon.  Was that...?

The big white pegasus banked over the field, reading the winds as he usually did, before dropping to the ground a few lengths away from her with a final beat of his wings, blowing dust across her face.  She paused to blink her eyes clear before trotting forward.  Grabbing the stallion’s neck in a hug, she nuzzled his neck affectionately.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Hey, Stormy,” he replied, his hoof pulling her close.

“Welcome to Ponyville,” said Storm Shadow, disentangling herself and stepping back.

“Well, it’s not the first time I’ve been here,” said Cirrostratus, looking around.  “How’s your first assignment going?”

The look on his daughter’s face told him more than he needed to know.

“This is going to be tricky, dad,” she said. “We’ve got a small, inexperienced team, insufficient water supplies on the ground, no suitable weather patterns and a very tight timeline.”

“Well, I might be able to help out with a few of those,” said Cirrostratus, reaching into his saddlebag for a sheaf of papers with one wing.  “We’ve got a nice juicy Cat 3 just beyond Trotterton.  It’s not quite heading this way, but with a few tweaks we can have it here in a couple of days.”

“A couple of days!  Dad, that’s too soon!  I’ve only just met the team, and so far I’ve not had my socks knocked off, if you know that I mean.”

Cirrostratus raised an eyebrow and passed the papers over.  On top was a manila envelope addressed to Storm Shadow.   With an extended tip feather, she tore open the flap and retrieved the papers inside.

“A week!?  They’re giving us a week?”

“Sorry, sweetheart.  I spoke to Thunderhead after I got your letter.  The Lift is scheduled for the end of the week.  You’ve got to top up the reservoirs, organise and train, and then lift in seven days.  Can you do it?”

Storm Shadow bit her lip as she re-read Thunderhead’s instructions, which mirrored what her father was telling her.  “It’s not so much whether I can do it,” she replied, looking up at the formation of ponies above and at Rainbow Dash in particular.  “It’s whether she can.”

The pair spoke a short while longer, with Storm Shadow making several requests of her father before he took off, bound for Cloudsdale.  She paused a few moments more, watching the Ponyville pegasi practice some more close formation work.  Even from this distance, Storm Shadow could hear Rainbow’s instructions to her squad, combined with hoof-signals, as they twisted around each other.

This is not going to be easy, she thought to herself as she extended her wings and took to the sky.  As Rainbow saw Storm Shadow climbing to meet them, she grabbed her whistle and blew, pointing off to some low clouds nearby.  The squad alighted on the clouds for a breather.

“Take five, everypony,” said Dash, as Storm Shadow landed next to her.  “Was that the Doc?” she asked, slightly hurt that he had not said hello.

“Yeah,” replied Storm Shadow, “Don’t worry, he’ll be back tomorrow.”

“He will?”

“I asked that he be assigned to the Dawn Patrol for this sector for the next few days.”

“Awesome,” replied Rainbow.  She looked around at the grey mare.  “Everything OK?  Aren’t you happy to be working with your Dad?”

Storm Shadow grimaced.  “I’ll tell you later.  In the meantime, are you ready?”

Rainbow looked around at her squad.  “I guess we’ll have to be.”  She raised her voice to speak to the others.

“OK, Storm is going to lead the formation.  Everyone else, you know what you’re doing.”

Storm Shadow lowered her flight goggles over her eyes, walked to the edge of the cloud and looked around at the squad.  They opened their wings as she did, and then she stepped forward.

The thrill.  The air blasting through her mane, her tail.  The ground, rushing up to meet her–

She snapped her wings fully open and pulled up.  A quick glance behind showed the squad forming up with her.  Rainbow settled in behind and to her left, with Blossomforth and Derpy beyond.  Behind and to the right, forming the other leg of the vee, were Thunderlane and Star Hunter.

“OK, guys,” called Storm Shadow into the slipstream, “Let’s play!”

With that, she snap-rolled to the left and dived back towards the athletics field.  A low pass with a sharp right turn set them headed towards the town square, barely skimming the rooftops.  Extending her right foreleg and pointing it back over at Thunderlane, she shouted into the slipstream

“Echelon Right!”

She could sense the motion as the ponies on her left side repositioned to form a diagonal line; a quick glance confirmed the formation before she veered right of the town hall spire and began a spiral climb centred on the building, forcing Derpy, out at the end of the formation, into a wider turn.  Two circuits of the town hall drew the attention of many of the ponies in the square, who paused in their daily activities as they watched the impromptu display overhead, and put the pegasi a good few hundred lengths above the town.

“Line!” called Storm Shadow, pointing both forehooves directly back, beneath her body.  Another glance, this time beneath her and between her rear legs showed the goggled face of Thunderlane almost touching her tail as it whipped around in her slipstream.  She was very tempted to show off her next trick right now, but he wasn’t that annoying.

She turned the formation towards the Solar Glory Dam and increased her speed.  Pointing both forelegs down, she called “Ladder!” and started to climb.

The formation became another diagonal line, this time vertically, with Storm Shadow at the front, the highest pony, and each pegasus below and behind the one ahead, down to Derpy, who was able to rest a little as she kept the original altitude.  The dam was visible ahead, built above a small waterfall that dropped the river outflow down onto the valley floor where Ponyville was built.  Following the path of the river, Storm Shadow began a gentle climb, remembering that the entire formation had a lowest point that also needed to be clear of the dam’s top.  As the pegasi flew over the top of the grey concrete span, Storm Shadow could feel the increase in humidity from the water evaporating from the reservoir.

Perfect.

“Vee!” she called, bringing her forelegs out to point back to the rear on each side of her body, and paused as Rainbow came back into the original position behind and to the left, followed closely by Blossomforth and Derpy; a quick glance on the other side showed Thunderlane and Star Hunter settle in.

Storm Shadow nodded and turned to look at Rainbow Dash.

“Your team is pretty good, Rainbow!”

The team captain blushed a little.

“How’s your ‘Tails and Trails’?”

Rainbow visibly gulped at the question, and Storm Shadow didn’t wait for a verbal response, turning back to face forward.  She closed her eyes, feeling the air as it curved over her hindquarters, adjusting her rear legs, trying to trigger the – yeah, there it was.  She looked back again to see the contrail forming over her rear legs as she flew, the curving airflow forcing the water vapour in the air to condense into a white cloud.

Of course, just about any pegasi with a little talent for cloud manipulation could generate a contrail, but only a few could go one better.  Storm Shadow was one of those ponies.  A quick adjustment of her legs and the contrail turned from white to the near-black of stormclouds; a moment later and she struck her rear hooves against each other, the steel shoes sparking and sending lightning crawling through the water vapour.

A quick glance to the left and right showed a full set of contrails from the team, ranging in shades from Blossomforth’s almost pure white through to Storm Shadow’s almost pure black, with literally every colour in between, courtesy of Rainbow Dash.

Most promising on the actual cloud contrail front, though, was Thunderlane.  Storm Shadow took a moment to observe his contrail, noting that it was almost as dark as her own.

“Rainbow Dash!” she shouted, turning her head towards the weather captain.  “Take the formation lead!”

Rainbow nodded her understanding as Storm Shadow turned her head to the other side to inform the stallions before pulling up a little, allowing the new flight leader to settle in to position at the tip of the vee, still streaming their contrails.  Rainbow took the formation into a gentle left turn back towards the town.

From the new position a few lengths above the formation, Storm Shadow looked again at Thunderlane’s trail before diving down closer, until her nose was above his tail, just a few hoofs behind his flapping wings.

“Thunderlane!” she shouted into the windblast.  His ears swivelled round toward her, but his eyes remained forward, looking at the sky ahead and the formation leader.  Storm Shadow smiled; just right for a wingpony.

“Strike your hind hooves!” she shouted.  Beneath her, his hind legs twitched and with a clang, he tried to strike one shoe off the other.  She barrel rolled to the left, sliding through Rainbow Dash’s multi-hued contrail and allowing her flightpath to bring her around and underneath him, her back to the ground.  She settled into the new position and paused; the formation’s turn had ended and they had begun to climb steeply.  Storm Shadow adjusted her position slightly, sighting in on Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane in order to hold the correct position, then took another deep breath.

“AGAIN!”

His flightpath wobbled a little as his head dipped, clearly surprised to find her changing positions around him so fast, but he quickly recovered.  Again the hooves struck, small sparks visible, but didn’t catch.  The climb had finished, and the formation eased gently over the top to begin a dive.

“BRING YOUR HOCKS TOGETHER A LITTLE AND TRY AGAIN!” she shouted into the slipstream.  She watched as he adjusted his hind legs a little and struck his hooves once more, this time sending tendrils of lightning crawling across his dark contrail.  The unusual sensation on his tail hair brought his head down, looking back along his belly, his eyes wide to see the mare flying pretty much upside-down beneath his hind legs, close enough to touch.  More amazing, though, was the lightning now illuminating the interior of his now noticeably darker contrail.

“AWESOME!” he shouted.

Storm Shadow took a second to look up and saw nothing but ground ahead.

“EYES FRONT!” she screamed in response, snap-rolling away from the formation, pulling ‘g’s as Rainbow brought the team through their own steep pull-out.  Storm Shadow rolled into a horizontal loop and bled off the extra speed, looking for the formation.  Thunderlane was clearly late in his pull-out, apparently bottoming out a solid fifty lengths below the rest of the pegasi before climbing to retake his place.  Even from a quarter mile away, Storm Shadow could see the vemon on Rainbow Dash’s face as she stared at the errant wingpony.  With a hoof gesture, she gently banked the formation over to land in an open field by the side of the meandering river.

Storm Shadow landed less than a minute behind the team, with Rainbow Dash’s screaming audible from a hundred lengths up.  The cyan pony was berating Thunderlane, his head bowed low in shame as the rest of the team looked on.  “NEVER TAKE YOUR EYES OFF YOUR FORMATION LEAD IN A LOW ALTITUDE DIVE!  WHAT THE HAY WERE YOU THINKING?”

Storm Shadow trotted up to the shouting flight leader, who held up a hoof in her direction while she finished the dressing down.

“YOU DO THAT AGAIN AND WE’LL BE HOSING WHAT’S LEFT OF YOU OFF THE TERRAIN!”

With that, Rainbow Dash turned angrily towards Storm Shadow.  Her voice was slightly quieter but no less filled with anger.  “And what in Celestia’s name did you think you were doing up there?”

“I-“ started Storm Shadow, before pausing awkwardly.  The truth was, Rainbow was right to be angry, the time to be teaching ponies how to skyspark was not while practicing high-speed, low-level formation work.  She looked away, embarrassed at herself.  When she looked back, Rainbow Dash had closed the distance between them and was starting into her eyes from a few hoofs away.

“Nopony,” she hissed, “and I mean nopony in my flight takes unnecessary risks and endangers any member of my team!  I don’t care if you’re a Storm Chaser, I don’t care if you’re the Doc’s daughter, if you do something like that again I’ll buck you halfway into next week!”

Storm Shadow held her gaze for a few seconds before nodding, satisfied, and replying.

“Good.”




 
 

The flight back to town was subdued, and as the formation reached the centre, Rainbow Dash had dismissed the team for lunch, deliberately turning her back on Storm Shadow and flying away without a further word.

Guess I deserved that thought Storm Shadow to herself.  She looked around at the scattering weather team and realised that she had an opportunity.

“Hey, Derpy, wait!”

Derpy turned as Storm Shadow fluttered to a gentle landing beside her.

“Hi, Miss Shadow!” said Derpy, a look of nervousness crossing her face.

The two ponies stared awkwardly at each other for a few seconds before trying to speak at the same time.

“I wa-“

“Tha-“

“After you,” said Storm Shadow.

“Thanks for not giving the game away,” said Derpy, “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw you.  For a second I thought you might have come looking for me.”

Storm Shadow shook her head.  “I had no idea you were down here.  But...”

“But what?”

“But now that I have run in to you again...” Storm Shadow smiled.

Derpy rolled her eyes – in opposite directions – and smiled back.  “I was going to get some lunch.  Why don’t you join me?”

The two pegasi stopped long enough to grab a couple of sandwiches to go from a shop near the schoolhouse before settling on a bench in the park next to the schoolyard.

“So, you were giving Convectus quite the lesson back at the university,” said Storm Shadow, trying to prompt the mailmare.

Derpy swallowed the bite of sandwich she had been chewing and pulled her attention away from the children playing in the schoolyard.

“You know the doctor?”

A nod.  “Yeah, I studied under her.  I’ve never seen anypony correct her about thermal transfers before.”

“I wasn’t trying to correct her,” said Derpy, blushing again.  Storm Shadow found it rather endearing.  “I just... had some ideas I wanted to talk about.”

“About advanced thermal transfer coefficients?”

“Oh, you know the field?” asked Derpy, brightening up.  “You see, I’ve long suspected that, when an arbitrary cloud of mass M-c and a moisture density of rho-c meets a...”

Storm Shadow listened on open-mouthed for a few minutes as Derpy excitedly chattered at her.

“You see?” she asked, finally.

“Derpy, I have a Masters Degree in Advanced Weather Management, specialising in Extreme Weather Events.  I’m not a dumb pony, you understand, but—”

“Yes?” asked Derpy, nervously.

“I understood maybe one word in five, there.  No wonder you knocked Convectus’ socks off.”

Derpy sighed and sat back, glumly regarding her sandwich.  Storm Shadow reached out and placed a forehoof on her shoulder, reassuringly.

“What’s wrong?  I meant that as a compliment!”

“I know, but it just underlines what I’ve always known.  I’m different, always different.  If it’s not my eye, or my absent-mindedness, or my clumsiness, now there’s this.”

“The others, they don’t know, do they?” asked Storm Shadow.

“I think a couple of my friends suspect that there’s more to me,” replied Derpy, trailing off again.

“More than a clumsy, dizzy blonde with a muffin fixation, you mean?”

Derpy started and looked around, staring into Storm Shadow’s eyes for the third time in two days, the hurt disappearing as quickly as it had arisen as she saw the warmth and compassion there.

“I have a certain reputation in this town, and I must admit, I’ve not done much to correct it.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being who you are, Derpy.  Why go up to the university now?  Has something changed?”

Derpy smiled again and took another bite of her sandwich, chewing slowly.  She swallowed, apparently having come to a decision.

“That’s one of my reasons,” she said, gesturing with a hoof towards the schoolyard.  Storm Shadow looked around, following the leg towards the children, in particular a group of young foals playing together.  “The unicorn in the middle is mine, her name is Dinky.”

Storm Shadow looked back again in surprise at Derpy.  “I didn’t know you had a kid,” she said.

“Two.  Dinky is my youngest,” said Derpy in response.  “Her sister is at high school on the other side of town.”

Storm Shadow was even more surprised – she hadn’t pegged Derpy as being much more than a year or two older than her.

“She’s young but she’s way ahead of her friends,” continued Derpy, “I don’t want her growing up ashamed of who she is and what she can do, the way I did.  I need to set a good example, and I can’t do that if people think I’m a fool.”

She paused for a few moments.

“Would you like to meet her?” asked Derpy, getting up and trotting towards the fence without waiting for Storm Shadow’s response.

“Uh, well...”

To Storm Shadow’s surprise, Derpy stopped at the fence rather than flying over it, waving her wings to attract the lilac unicorn foal’s attention.  Clearly not the kind of mom who hovers over her children, thought Storm Shadow.  She reflected further.  Literally, in her case.

“Mommy!” cried out Dinky, running over to the fence to greet her mother.

“Hello, muffin,” said Derpy, leaning down to nuzzle the top of Dinky’s head.

The little unicorn turned and fixed Storm Shadow with an impressive glare, at least coming from a foal.

“You’re tall,” she stated, matter-of-factly.

“Um,” said Storm Shadow, “Yes.”

“I don’t know you.”

“No.”

“Do you know my mommy?”

“Uh, well...”

The glare intensified.

Derpy watched the exchange, suppressing a laugh.

“So, talking to foals not part of your Chaser training, I take it?” she said.  Turning back to her daughter, she continued.  “Dinky, this is Miss Shadow, she’s... my friend.”

Storm Shadow looked around in surprise at Derpy, then back to the foal, who was now beaming up at her with a huge smile and puppy eyes.

“Hello Miss Shadow!  I’m Dinky!”

“Hello, Dinky, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Why don’t you go back and play with your friends, muffin,” said Derpy.  “I’ll see you tonight, OK?”

“OK!” said Dinky, as Derpy nuzzled the top of her head again, barely avoiding Dinky’s horn as she turned to run back to her waiting friends.  “Bye, mom!  Bye, Miss Shadow!”

Derpy waited until Dinky had reached her friends and turned to wave, returning the gesture before dragging herself away from the fence.

“We should probably head back to meet up with the others,” she said, “It’s been nearly an hour.”

Storm Shadow nodded and jumped into the air, unfurling her wings and starting a slow climbout.  Derpy was beside her a few moments later, deliberately holding a respectable distance away.

“More formation training this afternoon?” she asked nervously.

Storm Shadow shook her head.  She’d seen some unsteadiness from the wall-eyed pegasus during formation manoeuvres that morning – nothing too problematic, but noticeable to the trained eye.  “Nope, I’ll be working with each pony one-on-one to assess your specialties.  Rainbow will work with the rest of the team on lightning management drills.”

Storm Shadow looked down at the athletics field where the team were reassembling.

“Let’s just hope it goes a little more smoothly than this morning.”
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Storm Shadow followed Rainbow Dash as she spiralled down into the marketplace.  It had been a long, rigorous afternoon and thankfully there had been no further mishaps.  The sun had finally set a few minutes earlier and the stalls were long gone.  Rainbow paused outside a three-storey building with a sign hanging outside.

“The Headless Horse?” said Storm Shadow, reading from the sign.

Rainbow Dash grinned in response and pushed open the door, pausing for a few moments before spotting the rest of the team sat around a table at the back of the pub and heading over.  After a strenuous day of training, the team had agreed to meet at one of the pubs surrounding the marketplace for a good meal and a few drinks – an equally important team building experience, Storm Shadow had told herself.

Exchanging greetings with the weather pegasi, Storm Shadow took the stool at one end of the table while Rainbow Dash took the other.

“Where’s Derpy?” asked the weather captain, realising the table was one short.

“She was just heading home to check in on her fillies,” replied Blossomforth, “I’m sure she’ll get here soon.”

The team chatted and exchanged small talk for a couple of minutes before Star Hunter gestured towards the door with one wing.  Storm Shadow looked up to see the Derpy wander through the doorway, a ponderous look on her face.

“Hey, Derpy–” said Rainbow, trailing off as she trotted straight past the table, close enough for Storm Shadow to see her lips moving silently, one eye pointed up at the ceiling.  Storm Shadow opened her mouth in amazement as Derpy pushed through the door into the kitchen, followed shortly afterwards by a loud crash.

“Ooops, my bad!” said Derpy, backing her way out of the kitchen to a series of loud cursing from inside.

“Hey, Derpy, over here!” called out Rainbow.  The grey pegasus heard her this time, and wandered over to the table, smiling.

“You OK, Derpy?” asked Blossomforth as she pulled out a stool and sat down.

“Fine, fine,” replied Derpy, sheepishly.

“You looked like you were a million miles away.  What were you thinking about?”

Derpy stole a quick look at Storm Shadow.

“Uh, nothing, nothing,” she said, quickly.  “You know, stuff.  Muffins!”

The assembled team rolled their eyes at this, except Storm Shadow, who kept her gaze levelled at Derpy.

“Well,” said Storm Shadow, deciding to change the subject.  She looked around the table, “it’s been a long day and I’m hungry, but more importantly, I’m also thirsty.”

At the rest of the team’s insistence, the first round was on Thunderlane for his dressing down from Rainbow Dash, and given her involvement in the same incident, Storm Shadow had quickly ponied up for the second round before the jeers started.  After they had eaten, the weather team pushed back their stools and relaxed, allowing Storm Shadow to immerse herself in the sea of gentle chatter, taking the opportunity to get to know her temporary wingponies a little better – even Rainbow Dash had relaxed a little since that morning, enjoying the company of friends.  The effect had been spoiled a little when Derpy had knocked over a quarter-full mug of cider.  She froze for a second before looking around at the rest of the team, eyes wide and brimming with false innocence.

“I just don’t know what went wrong!” she exclaimed, shrugging her forelegs.

This had sent the rest of the team into paroxysms of laughter, much to Storm Shadow’s puzzlement, and Thunderlane tried to explain before being cut off by Derpy.

“I’d rather tell the story myself, if you don’t mind.”

Thunderlane gave a magnanimous wave of his hoof and headed to the bar to replace his drink.

“So, like I said, my depth perception isn’t that great with this thing,” said Derpy, gesturing to her eye and sending it rolling around while remaining focused on Storm Shadow with her other.  “I do tend to have a few accidents here and there.”
Storm Shadow nodded and ignored the mostly-suppressed titters from around the table.

“Well, some days are better than others,” said Derpy, continuing her story. “There was this time a couple of months ago – Rainbow had asked me to help out with a few small storm clouds; they were closer to the town than she was comfortable with.

“Problem was, I had an absolutely awful head cold.  So, I grabbed a bottle of cough syrup and took a nice big swig.  Then I spotted another bottle in the medicine cabinet, supposed to be good for sinus problems, so I took a dose of that, too.  Unfortunately, I didn’t read the labels – they were both night remedies.”

Storm Shadow put her head in her hooves, trying to stifle her laughter.  “You’re joking.  She’s joking, right?”

A few of the team gave wistful smiles and shook their heads.

“Oh, I wish I was,” said Derpy, taking a swig of cider.  “So, I pitch up at the edge of town and meet Rainbow, and we start bucking these clouds to knock some of the lightning out of them while we’re still outside the town centre.”

“Let me guess, at this point, you’re – what’s the term, ‘out of your gourd’?” said Storm Shadow, trying her best not to laugh.  

“Wrecked?” said Thunderlane.

“Squiffy,” suggested Blossomforth.

“Buzzed,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Hammered,” was Star Hunter’s input.

“I like ‘Blotto’,” replied Derpy after a moment, hoof tapping against her chin thoughtfully as she jokingly stared off into the middle distance.  She looked back at Storm Shadow and continued her story.

“Anyway, I’m bouncing on top of this storm cloud, not realising it’s drifting across town towards the Town Hall.  Rainbow is trying to get my attention, but my sinuses are completely clogged and I can’t hear her – besides, I’m so out of it I think she’s waving her hooves in encouragement, so I keep jumping up and down.  Next thing I know, she zips past me and then I see – I’ve managed to blow a hole in the roof and knock down the banner that’s been strung for a wave-off ceremony for one of the local rodeo ponies.”

Storm Shadow had pretty much given up on trying not to laugh and was merely trying to stop herself from falling off her stool.

“I then proceeded to blast a couple more holes in Town Hall, fry the end of Rainbow’s tail, then shock myself halfway insensible, culminating in, well, that line.”  Derpy shrugged again and smiled.  “What can I say, I really didn’t know what went wrong...”

“So what happened next?”

 “I’ll tell you what happened next,” said Rainbow Dash, leaning forward with a grin. “She then deployed the most dangerous weapon in all of Equestria!”

Storm Shadow wiped a tear from her eye and frowned, “What, you mean an Element of Harmony or something?”

“Nope, her plot.  She managed to continue the demolition derby on the Town Hall, mostly using her butt.”

Thunderlane leaned forward to comment but was cut off by an outstretched hoof from Rainbow Dash, who didn’t even look in his direction as she spoke.

“Thunderlane, if you comment about her plot you’ll still be singing soprano at the next Hearth’s Warming Eve.”

Storm Shadow was again impressed by Thunderlane’s ability to keep his mouth shut, even if it did need prompting.

“Well, I should get home to the girls,” said Derpy, standing up and dropping sufficient bits from her saddlebag to cover her share of the bill.  “I’ll see you guys in the morning.”

“Formal briefing tomorrow morning, 7am at the library,” said Rainbow Dash as Derpy shrugged on her saddlebags.  She nodded her understanding and trotted out the door to a chorus of farewells from the team, head held high.

“Thunderlane, do I need to kick your ass again?” asked Rainbow Dash, mildly.

“No, boss.”

“Good,” replied Rainbow, “I don’t want to risk chipping a hoof or something.”

The ponies dispersed one-by-one until only Rainbow Dash and Storm Shadow were left behind.

“Well, that’s quite a team you have there, Captain,” said Storm Shadow with a smile, finishing the last of her cider.

“I know,” replied Rainbow.  “They’re my team, of course they’re awesome, like me.”

Her cocky grin tightened at the look on Storm Shadow’s face.

“Yeah, I know, first impressions weren’t great this morning.  You’ve seen them fly now, though – what do you think our chances are?”

“Another day of training will be useful,” said Storm Shadow, “But they were all pretty good this afternoon.  If everything goes according to plan, I think we should be fine.”
 





 
The ponies gathered in the main room of the library shortly after daybreak, with Twilight Sparkle again playing host to a Weather Service briefing.  Breakfast was courtesy of Derpy’s muffins once more, with hot drinks supplied by the librarian.  Storm Shadow noticed that her dragon assistant was absent, and upon commenting on this fact, was informed by Twilight that Spike was “not a morning pony”.

“OK, settle down,” said Rainbow Dash, calling the attention of the weather team to herself as she hovered over the main table.  “I’ve hoof-selected this team for this assignment because it’s not going to be an easy one.  We’ve been tasked by the Special Meteorological Bureau to use a non-scheduled storm to refill the local reservoirs around Ponyville, starting with Solar Glory and moving on to Highland, Applevale and Meadowgreen.”

The weather team shared a few glances at this news.  It was obvious from the unscheduled training with a ‘Chaser the previous day that something was cooking; a major storm was rare, but not so far outside their experience to be a serious worry.  Yet.

“When’s the storm getting here?” asked Blossomforth.

“It should arrive early tomorrow morning,” said Rainbow Dash, “it’s coming in from the direction of Trottington; once it clears the mountains to the west we’ll start the downpour over the edge of the Everfree, aiming to dump the majority of the rain into the upper valley where it’ll be caught by the dam.  The remainder will fall in the valley itself, over the town and surrounding fields, so we’ll get some natural fill into the reservoirs and the rest we can top up from the river by releasing from Solar Glory.  Any questions so far?”

“Coming in from the west means the backstop for the storm is the town itself,” commented Star Hunter.

“True,” replied Rainbow, “So we need to time this one right.  Twilight has agreed to be our liaison with Mayor Mare and the local government, so we’ll get the notifications out today that there’s an unscheduled shower on its way.”

“This is a bit sudden, isn’t it?” asked Thunderlane, “Why are we getting a storm in from the east, anyway?  Normally the stuff we pick up from the Everfree is, you know, a bit weird.”  He shivered a little at the last word.

“We need to refill the water sources around Ponyville as soon as we can,” replied Rainbow Dash.

Storm Shadow watched the briefing continue as Rainbow started going into to more detail about what the team could expect when the storm arrived, breaking off after a minute or so of listening to reassuringly sensible questions from the team to answer the gentle knock on the library door.  She found her father outside, shaking ice crystals off his wings before stepping through the door.  He paused to hug his daughter in the doorway.

“Dad, you’re freezing!” whispered Storm Shadow, shaking condensation from his mane off her foreleg.

“The joys of the Dawn Patrol,” replied Cirrostratus with a grin.

“Ah, perfect timing!” announced Rainbow Dash from the front of the room.  “Everypony, this is Dr Cirrostratus, he’s been assigned as our Dawn Patrol for this operation.  Doc, have you got our briefing?”

“I certainly have, Ms Dash,” said Cirrostratus, trotting to the front.  “OK, I laid eyes on your storm this morning, it’s currently over Hoofington and heading this way, fast.  I don’t think the original timeline is going to hold.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I’d expect the first fringes of the storm to be hitting Ponyville tonight.”

Storm Shadow stepped forward, surprised. “Central said–”

“I know what they said, but given where it was yesterday and what I saw today, it’s moving fast.  I think it’s going to be this evening.”

Storm Shadow and Rainbow Dash shared a look.  What was already a tricky job was going to be even more difficult with the added complexity of encroaching darkness, not to mention the loss of time for further training for the team.

“Perhaps I can help tilt the balance a little for you,” interjected Cirrostratus, reaching into a saddlebag with his wing.  He drew out a small wooden box and set it on the table.  “The boffins are still testing these, but they’re working well.”

He opened the box, revealing two rows of small brass rings set vertically in red velvet.  Reaching a primary feather through one of the rings and pulling, he lifted a softly glowing purple crystal from the padding.  The crystal was a couple of inches long and maybe a half inch in diameter, and the brass ring was attached to a cap piece enclosing one end, leaving an inch and a half or so uncovered.  Holding it up for the ponies to see, he beckoned with his other wing.

“Miss Shadow, could you assist me for a moment?”

Storm Shadow trotted forward and joined the white stallion, at which point he stuck the crystal in her ear.

“Argh!” she cried, jumping away from him, “Not so rough, please!”

“I’m sorry, my dear,” said Cirrostratus.  “Now, these are ElectroMagic crystals, set to vibrate at the same frequency.  Well, that’s what the ponies back in the labs told me.  What can I say, I’m a flyer, not an engineer.”

“I asked the Doctor to get us a set for this operation,” explained Storm Shadow, adjusting the position of the crystal in her left ear using the ring for leverage.  “They’ll allow us to communicate over long distance.”

“They’re still under testing, so they’ll welcome any feedback,” said Cirrostratus.  “They’ll also welcome getting them back intact as well, since they’re... kind of on loan.”

Storm Shadow looked around at her father.  “They did give you permission to use them, right?”

Cirrotratus fidgeted nervously.  “Of course.  Well, not officially.” 

Storm Shadow fixed her father with a stern look.

“OK, I had to strike a deal with the head of the Communications section at the labs.”

Storm Shadow’s eyes narrowed; she didn’t like where this was going.

“Dad, what did you agree to?” she asked, ignoring the raised eyebrows from some of the team members.

“Well, Far Talker has a son, he’s about your age...”

Storm Shadow’s blush was visible even through her dark grey coat.  “Dad!  I’m not a little filly.”

“Just looking out for your future, dear,” said Cirrostratus with a smile.

Storm Shadow paused and looked around at the weather team, who were staring at the pair with a mixture of amusement and bafflement.

“You know what, never mind, we’ll talk about that later,” she said, giving him her best glare.  She turned back to the rest of the team.

“Now, come on up here and get one each.”

One by one, the weather team pegasi stepped up and picked up a crystal to slide into their ears, each electing to do the insertion themselves with varying degrees of distaste at the unusual sensation. 

Storm Shadow was amused to hear Derpy’s reaction, however. 

“Oooh, that tickles!”





 
 
“This is decidedly weird.”

“We heard you the first time, Thunderlane,” replied Rainbow Dash.  “Now clear the channel.  And for Celestia’s sake, take your crystal out next time you take a leak, please.”

She looked across at Storm Shadow and rolled her eyes.  The two were sitting on a cloud overlooking Ponyville, watching the rest of the team flying apparently at random around the valley.

“Blossom, head for the dam,” ordered Dash. 

“Copy, Rainbow.”

Below, a white shape peeled off from her wingpony and turned towards the grey concrete in the distance.

“Derpy, give me a spiral climb.”

“Roger dodger!” was the enthusiastic response as the other pony of the pair started to climb.

“Let’s keep to the assigned callsigns, Derpy,” replied Rainbow Dash, rubbing the bridge of her nose with one hoof.

Strom Shadow smiled.  “As you can see,” she said, “You can hear anything anypony on the same channel says.  No screaming, no need to shout against windblast.  The crystal will sense the vibrations in your skull from you speaking normally and transmit them to all other crystals on the same frequency.   There are a few drawbacks; limited range and only a single channel, so everyone hears the same thing.”

“We noticed when we heard Thunder earlier on,” commented Blossomforth, “Whether we wanted to or not...”

There was a brief round of laughter from the ponies on the team.

“OK, settle down,” said Rainbow Dash, “All team members rendezvous up here with Storm and myself.”

The pair waited for the team to reassemble on the cloud.

“OK, everypony,” said Rainbow Dash, “We’ve got a Cat 3 storm out there and it’s heading our way.  We’re probably going to need to adjust the course as it comes in closer.  Grab some lunch and reassemble up here in an hour, we’ll set off to meet it.  It’s going to be a long one, so eat well.”

The weather team began to pull the comm crystals from their ears and set off for town in ones and twos.  Storm Shadow waited for the Star Hunter to head off before pulling her own crystal and speaking to Rainbow Dash.

“Come on, I’m buying.”

After a couple of very good daffodil and honey sandwiches on Storm Shadow’s tab, the pair headed back to the library for a final check-in with Twilight Sparkle.  They found her in the centre of a miniature whirlwind of papers in the library’s main room.

“Ah, there you are!” she said as the pegasi walked through the door.  “OK, I’ve met with the Mayor and the council and let them know what’s going on.  There are emergency flyers to distribute warning everypony about a storm, I’ve tasked the Cutie Mark Crusaders to distribute them around town.  I’ve also filed a Notice to Air Ponies with Canterlot Central.”

“You filed our NOTAP already?” said Rainbow, surprised.  “Then I think that about covers everything.”

“Oh, and I had a brainwave earlier.  Can I borrow one of your crystals for a minute?”

Storm Shadow nodded and held out hers on her wing.  With a soft purple glow, the unicorn levitated it over to the table and examined it closely.  Her horn flared again, and then she levitated it back to the waiting pegasus.

“OK, why don’t you put it in and step outside, let’s see if this works.”

Storm Shadow shared a quick look with Rainbow, who merely shrugged.  With that, the grey mare slid the crystal into her ear, opened the library door and stepped outside, shutting it behind her.

“Testing, one, two, three.”

Storm Shadow jumped in surprise at the new voice in her ear.  Twilight didn’t have a crystal of her own, there weren’t enough to go around.

“Um.  Hello?” she responded, nervously.

“I can hear you!  I take it you can hear me?”

Storm Shadow opened the door to see Twilight standing in the same place, her horn lit and her eyes closed.  Her lips were barely moving as she spoke, but Storm Shadow could hear them as if she were standing close by.

“This is great!” the unicorn was exclaiming, “You see, the spell I cast means I can send and receive on the crystal’s frequency.  I read an article on-”

“You can tap our channel without needing your own crystal,” interrupted Rainbow Dash, “We got it.”

Twilight blushed.  “Exactly.”

“Well, there’s a storm out there with our name written on it,” said Storm Shadow.  “We should get going.”

“Good luck!” exclaimed Twilight.  “I’ll be listening in.  Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help.”

Rainbow Dash stepped forward and hugged her.  “Thanks for all your help, Twi.  See you later.”

The two pegasi stepped outside, their eyes set on the cloud above town where the rest of the team were probably already waiting.  Storm Shadow took a moment to remove the crystal from her ear.

“Are you ready for this?” she asked.

Rainbow Dash looked around and smiled.   With her left wing, she slid her comms crystal into her ear.

“Flight, prepare for launch.”
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Storm Shadow continued to scan her assigned sector, moving her attention between stationkeeping behind and to the left of Derpy, and scanning the skies to the left of the formation for anything unusual.  They had been flying for nearly two hours, and had left the Everfree Forest and the tall peak of Dragon Mountain far behind.  Ahead of the formation, the horizon was thick with dark cloud.

“Rainbow,” said Storm Shadow.

“I see it, Storm,” replied Rainbow Dash, “That doesn’t look like a Cat 3 to me.”

“Agreed.  That’s a Cat 4 at least.  Pretty impressive for it to grow so fast - my father laid eyes on it less than 10 hours ago.”

“He’ll have done it from at least five thousands lengths higher than we are right now.  Take a look at the topcover.”

Storm Shadow took a moment to scan the uppermost parts of the cloud.  Above the dark nimbus cloud, separated by a gap of a thousand or so lengths, was a thin layer of white. 

“Hmph.  I see what you mean.  Pileus cloud has formed up on top, hiding the main storm cloud below.”

“The weather team from Manehatten will have helped it along as well,” interjected Blossomforth.  “Besides that, we’ve got cold air coming off the top of the mountains behind us.”

“Blossomforth’s right,” said Rainbow Dash.  “We need to regroup and think about this a second.  There’s a thin layer a thousand lengths up, just to the north.  We’ll set down there and take a look.”

The formation started a gentle climb, following Rainbow Dash’s lead.  With a gentle curve, they formed a line at Rainbow’s command and increased spacing to come in for a landing on the edge of the cloud layer.  The ponies took a moment to stretch their legs a little and gathered around Rainbow Dash and Storm Shadow, who were watching the oncoming storm with increasing concern.

“This doesn’t feel right,” said Rainbow Dash.  “Look at the bottom of the cloud deck.”

Storm Shadow followed the team captain’s outstretched hoof and studied what she could see of the underside of the storm clouds.

“I see what you mean, they’re very flat.”

“What does that mean?” asked Star Hunter.

“Nothing good,” replied Storm Shadow, “I think we might have a capped inversion layer here.  The cold air is rolling off the mountains behind us and flowing under the storm, which is running in the opposite direction on top.”

Rainbow Dash turned to look at her team.

“Derpy, I need a thermal survey, you’re flying solo.  Watch out for wind shear, there’s probably going to be something nasty through the inversion layer.  Storm, take Thunder to that cloudbank on the north side.  Keep an eye on the storm wall, make sure it doesn’t start breaking apart on us.  Blossom, Star, you’re with me.  We’re going to perform a complete cloud survey from above, I want this whole storm mapped.  After that we’ll head over to the south wall and make sure it stays intact.”

Each of the named pegasi nodded in turn as they received their orders.  As they pushed their flight goggles back into place, Rainbow took one quick look around and nodded at Derpy, who had taken position at the edge of the cloud, wings still folded, her right hooves barely standing on the cloud.

“Let’s go!” called the wall-eyed mailmare gleefully, and rolled to her right, straight off the cloud.

“Damnit, Derpy!” called Rainbow with a grin, accelerating toward a gallop like the others as they dived head-first off the cloudbank in pursuit.  As Storm Shadow cleared the edge and looked down, she saw Derpy snap her wings open to stop the developing spin.  With a slight twist of both wings, Derpy began to curve her flightpath toward the storm.  Behind her, Rainbow Dash, Blossomforth and Star Hunter formed a left echelon.   Storm Shadow made a quick check to confirm Thunderlane had taken position on her right before joining up with the formation, forming the right-side of the vee shape.

“Starting my survey!” called Derpy, already diving down to below the level of the oncoming storm.

“Take care, Derpy,” replied Rainbow Dash.  “Flight, we’ll start a spiral climb, nice and gentle.”

Storm Shadow gently banked into the turn, splitting her attention between stationkeeping and trying to watch Derpy below.  They had completed two circles and had started a third when Derpy made her first call.

“Muffins!”

“Derpy, you OK?”

“Sorry, Rainbow.  Major windshear right at the inversion layer, just like you said.  The storm is above three thousand lengths, the air is relatively warm and moist.  There’s a good 20, maybe 25 knots of wind blowing the storm towards Ponyville, as planned, but below the layer it’s cold and the wind is blowing 20 knots back out towards the bay.  I’m going to start mapping thermals ahead of the storm path.”

Storm Shadow broke away and headed for the cloudbank that Rainbow Dash had indicated.  The cloud was only a quarter of a mile from the main wall of the storm itself, and afforded a good view of the north side of the storm and the ground below.  Settling on top, she sat on her haunches and took a few minutes to take in as much as she could.
Below, the grey shape of Derpy was barely visible, zigzagging ahead of the storm’s path as she tried to feel out the air currents and atmospheric disturbances.  Rainbow Dash lead her flight closer in to the storm, threading between the main body of the cumulonimbus and the pileus cloud sitting above it. 

Storm Shadow looked away from the storm, picked a row of trees on the ground visible ahead of the storm cloud and started counting to herself.  Once the leading edge of the storm obscured the trees, she made a few mental calculations then called on the common band.

“Rainbow, Storm.  I think we’re picking up speed here; I just clocked us at about 35 knots over the ground.”

“Copy that, Storm,” replied Rainbow.  There was a pregnant pause; Storm Shadow could picture Rainbow’s brow creasing at the mental arithmetic.  “That gives us about four and a half hours, I think.”

“Four hours, thirteen minutes for the leading edge of the storm to clear the valley watershed,” came the immediate reply.  “Rainbow, if the speed holds, the storm will cross the valley area and the leading edge will go beyond the dam within 24 minutes.”

“Wait... Derpy?  Was that you?”

“Affirm, Rainbow.”

Even over the slightly tinny quality that the electromagic crystals gave each pony’s voice, Storm Shadow could hear the confusion in Rainbow’s.

“How did you... are you sure?”

“Yes.  Like I said, four hours and now twelve minutes to get there, twenty-four minutes to cross the upper valley and start raining beyond the dam.”

“There’s more than 24 minutes of rainfall in this storm,” commented Blossomforth, “Boss, the rest is going to hit slap bang on Ponyville and the rest of the valley.”

“OK, I got it,” said Rainbow Dash, “But our first problem is that we need to get the storm there.  We’ve got mountains to get across.”

Storm Shadow listened in on the conversation as she regarded the wall of cloud in front of her.  The storm was still surprisingly low, capped on top by the white pileus cloud, but the wall formed an almost sheer face upwards, roiling cloud forming bumps and patterns that threatened to break away like bubbles from the top of a soda.

“Rainbow, Storm.  We’ve got instability in the north wall.  Thunder and I will try to contain breakaways.”

“Copy, Storm.  Watch for lightning.”

Storm Shadow turned to Thunderlane, who had walked to the edge of the cloud and spread his wings already.

“I’ll get the first one, you take the next!” he yelled, and dived off the cloud.  Storm Shadow watched as he dived at a bubble of cloud threatening to break away from the storm wall, plowing into it hooves-raised and forcing it back.  Her attention was drawn to another breakaway starting to form a few thousand lengths higher up and a mile or so futher back in the storm’s track.  She gritted her teeth, extended her wings and dived...

The next hour passed in a blur, with voices in her ear telling a difficult tale as she and Thunderlane alternated trying to contain the unstable north wall of the storm.  With a few exceptions, they were generally successful, with most of the distension being pushed back into the storm body with an appropriate buck, forehoof shove or in some cases a couple of strategic wingbeats to control the destabilising air currents from the violent shear layer that was building as the storm accelerated towards the ridgeline of the mountains.

By the sound of things, the other ponies in the team weren’t having a much easier time on the south wall, either, with Blossomforth and Star Hunter likewise trying to hold the cloudbank together.  Rainbow Dash had tried to stay on top of the storm, keeping an eye on the path of the storm and watching for the telltale buildup of the anvil thunderhead that would surely come.  The pileus cloud had finally broken and dumped virga – rainfall that doesn’t reach the ground – all over the top of the storm, and all over Rainbow.  The string of expletives that had rung in the team’s ears had been very illuminating.  And enough to make a teamster blush, it transpired, as Derpy stopped her running description of the thermals and atmospheric disturbances ahead of the storm long enough to ask Dash if she knew what those words actually meant.

Thankfully, their fears had not been fulfilled, as the storm cloud absorbed the extra moisture without beginning to rain through to the ground below.

“We’re running out of space down here,” came the call from Derpy.  Her commentary on the state of the thermals and air currents coming off the mountain had been invaluable to the team, giving advanced warning of where potential instabilities could form and allowing the ponies to jump on them before they could build.  The team had managed to hold the storm to a relatively narrow front, just a few miles wide.

“I think that’s all we’re going to get, Derpy,” called Rainbow Dash.  “Team, looks like we’re getting close to the ridgeline.  Reassemble on the cloudbank and we can ride it out.”

Storm Shadow nodded to Thunderlane and headed for the cloudbank that the team had assembled on a few hours earlier.  A few minutes later, Rainbow Dash and the rest of her section wearily touched down alongside as she peered over the edge, watching Derpy slowly wend her way over the hillside below before selecting a weak thermal to spiral up to meet them.

“She’s heading up here now,” said Storm Shadow to nopony in particular, biting her lip in apprehension as the grey shape below was flung around as she crossed the inversion layer.  Once she was sure the mailmare was safely through and heading up to meet the rest of the team, Storm Shadow turned her attention to the ridgeline ahead.

The two mountains bracketing the pass ahead of them probably had names, but right now all she could think of them was North and South.  Thankfully, the storm was heading pretty much straight between them, tending perhaps a little towards the north peak.

“Direction looks pretty good,” said Rainbow Dash, running a practiced, if not expert eye over the probable path.

“We might scrape a bit on the north side,” replied Storm Shadow, turning around to look at the dark mass of cloud looming over the weather team.  “I think we can afford to lose a little, though.”

Rainbow Dash nodded thoughtfully as Derpy managed to land on the cloud without taking out half of the team.

“Hey, Derpy,” said Rainbow, “Great work down there.”

She paused for a second and looked around the rest of the team.  “That goes for everypony, we’re doing well so far but we’re only halfway home.  Take a breather, there’s not much more we can do until we’ve cleared the ridgeline.  Right now, we’re pointed at home and heading there–”

She paused and looked over the edge of the cloud at the ground streaking by below.

“–Heading there pretty fast, actually.”

Blossomforth had taken position at the leading edge of the cloudbank to keep an eye on things.

“OK, here we go!” she called, spreading all four legs out slightly and crouching to lower her centre of gravity.

Storm Shadow grimaced and took up a similar stance, she’d never enjoyed ridgehopping during weather training, and had certainly never decided to take a cloud out and ride the turbulent air currents around a mountain for fun since then.  The cloud below her hooves seemed to undulate and she felt herself rising rapidly as the cloud was caught in the rapidly narrowing buffer of air between the mountain and the storm as the inversion layer was squeezed.

“Here we go,” she muttered to herself as her stomach lurched.

“Wheeeee!!!!”

“Damn it, knock it off, Derpy!”
 



 
 

Storm Shadow strained to hear over the noise of the thunder rolling ominously close by.  Due to the hills, she and the rest of the team could only hear Rainbow Dash, the responses coming back from Ponyville blocked by the surrounding hills.

“No, you need to clear the streets, this is going to be a big one, bigger than we were expecting,” said Rainbow.

There was a pregnant pause.

“And make sure the dam is closed off – that whole area needs to be clear of nonessential ponies and the spillways opened to full.  Yes, I know, I know.  Tell them to start emptying out the reservoir right now, we’ve got more than enough to refill it.  The lower reservoirs need to be ready to pull in water from the river, and the riverbanks should be cleared out too.”

Another pause.

“You need to scramble Cloudkicker and her team.  Tell them to handle the stuff that makes it over the town and the local fields.  Anything they can push over to the next valley before it drops all the rain in this watershed would be a bonus.  Don’t let them come any closer than the dam, tell them they’ll have me to answer to if they do.  You got all that?”

Static.

“No, I think that’s everything.  Thanks, Twi.”

Storm Shadow looked around at the rest of the team.  They were scattered on a small cloud that had broken free of the main storm’s south wall and had been corralled to serve as a small platform for the team to rest.  By all appearances, they needed it – while most of the team had been able to take the occasional break and rest their wings, Derpy in particular had been airborne nearly the whole time from encountering the storm to crossing the mountains, fighting the wind shear and strong currents caused by the extreme weather.  She lay on her belly on the cloud, legs splayed, eyes fighting to stay open.  Storm Shadow wearily wandered over and nuzzled the top of Derpy’s head.

“You OK?”

One golden eye opened and looked up at her, accompanied by a weak smile.

“I’ll be fine.  There are some advantages to spending the whole day on the wing with heavy mailbags.”

Storm Shadow stepped back as the mailmare climbed wearily to her hooves, looking up into the dark sky for the cerulean 
flash of Rainbow heading down to meet up with the team.  Seeing the brightly-coloured mane catching the weak beams of the setting sun a few thousand lengths up, she looked around to the rest of the team.  Thunderlane was just about asleep, resting his head on Blossomforth’s shoulder as they sat together.  The white pony was fully awake, and on meeting Storm Shadow’s gaze, shrugged her shoulder to wake him up.

“Give us a minute, we’ll be good to go.”

Star Hunter was stood at the edge of the cloud, watching the storm front as the whole mass sped over the hoofhills of the retreating mountain range.  At Storm Shadow’s question, he had broken his gaze away to look at her, and when their eyes met, he nodded.

“Ready.”

Storm Shadow nodded in response and turned at the sound of wings flapping as Rainbow Dash landed on the cloud.  Her multi-hued mane glistened with moisture and her drooped shoulders told the story of fatigue, but when she pushed her goggles up, her rose-coloured eyes burned with determination.

“OK, I made contact with Ponyville, they know there’s a big storm coming.  The plan hasn’t changed, we need to dump as much rainfall into the dam’s reservoir on the first pass and minimise the rainfall that’s going to drop onto the town and the valley below.”

She looked around at the team; they were all on their hooves now and looking at her.

“I know you’re all tired, it’s been a long day, but it’s not over yet.”

Blossomforth stepped forward a pace.  “We’re ready, boss.”

“We’ll cross the hill line for the watershed in a few minutes.  As soon as we do, it’s all hooves on deck – we need to trigger the rainfall and get things going.  Blossom, Derpy, you’re on the south side.  Hunter, you’re with me on the north side.  Storm, we need to start the lightning sooner rather than later.  We’re going to need-“

“Skysparking,” interjected Storm Shadow.  She looked around at Thunderlane.  “What do you think, kid?  Can you keep up?”

“Hay yeah!” said Thunderlane, puffing up his chest.

Storm Shadow turned back to Rainbow Dash.  “We’ll lay down four parallel trails under the storm path, two out and two back, about a hundred or so lengths above the water surface.  When we skyspark them, they’ll provide the electrical path to start the lightning bolts headed to where we want them – into the lake and not the dam or town.”

“Sounds good,” said Rainbow.

Storm Shadow looked around to the other ponies.  “Just don’t start bucking those clouds until we get clear; we really don’t need the lighting hitting the trails and coming straight at us while we’re still laying them down.”

She headed over to the edge of the cloudbank and looked down.  With one hoof, she pulled her flight goggles down over her eyes and looked to her side as Thunderlane stepped up and did the same.

“Ready when you are,” he said with a nervous grin.

“Hold your horses,” replied Storm Shadow.  “If we start laying too early, they’ll dissipate before the storm gets there.  Now, I want you above the northern shoreline, about a hundred lengths up.  When you get to a quarter mile from the dam, turn and head parallel ‘til you’re near the centre of the reservoir, then turn and head back towards the storm.  If we time it right, I’ll meet you there and we’ll bring the trails until we’re under the storm.  Don’t spark until I tell you or we’re both toast, clear?”

Thunderlane swallowed nervously and nodded.

“When we’re done, break low and head north, then when you’re clear, meet up with Rainbow Dash and Star Hunter and help out on the northside.  I’ll meet Derpy and Blossom and help on the south.”

“Got it.”

Storm Shadow looked again at the terrain slipping by below and turned back to Rainbow Dash.

“See you on the other side!”

On seeing Rainbow’s salute, she turned back and leapt forward.
 


 
“I’m in position!” called Thunderlane on the channel.

“OK kid, start laying your trail!”

Storm Shadow looked across the reservoir into the darkness, but couldn’t see him.  She had started her own trail a few seconds before he called, but the rapidly fading twilight meant she could barely even see that.  A quick glance around the horizon showed the edge of the moon, but it wasn’t high enough yet to provide significant lighting.

She turned her attention back to the comms. 

“OK, that’s the edge!  Let’s get this rain flowing, everypony!” called Rainbow Dash.

“Damn, there’s a lot of lightning over here, Boss,” warned Blossomforth.

“Be careful, we just want rain at this point!  Storm, how are you doing?”

“We’re about two-thirds of the way along the reservoir,” called Storm Shadow, “We should be turning in a few minutes.”

She continued to scan the darkness.  As soon as we can see the dam, anyway she thought to herself.  Curving around the foreland to her left, the moon caught the still-smooth surface of the water, showing no signs of the violence following hot on their hooves.  Above the water, though, was the silhouette of the dam, a few lights along the top of the grey concrete, and behind that the lights of Ponyville.  Once she had reached the appropriate distance from the dam, she made her turn towards the centre of the reservoir.

“Just making my turn,” came the call from Thunderlane.

“Me too-“ replied Storm Shadow.  As she was speaking, she spotted movement on top of the dam “Oh, ponyfeathers.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Thunder, Storm, change of plan, make your turn as planned and head back.  Don’t spark, just lay your trail and get clear.”

“But-“

“Do it!” called Storm Shadow as she stopped her contrail and spiralled down to the dam below.  Galloping along the top was a unicorn in a hard hat.

“What are you doing!?” she shouted over the roar of water from the dam’s spillway, visible in the rising moonlight as a glowing white plume from the arches.  The unicorn began to slow, looking over his shoulder at the unexpected voice.   “No, keep going!  There’s a major storm on the way!”

She slotted in alongside him, still flying.

“We know,” he panted, trying to catch his breath as he ran, “I just had to -   sort out a - problem with - a control valve!”

“OK, where’s your control room?”

“Up there,” said the unicorn, nodding towards a low building at the far end of the dam, just beyond the statue of a sitting pegasus.

“OK, get inside and button up, this is going to be a big one!”

The unicorn shot her a look; even in the darkness she could read it as what do you think I’m trying to do?

A quick look over his shoulder into the valley showed the lights of Ponyville spread out below them; the moon had risen enough over the distant hills to show the smaller reservoirs down on the valley floor.  A few spots of rain on her back drew her attention back to the storm towering over her.

Damn, it’s close, she thought to herself.

“Good luck!” she shouted at the engineer pony and banked up and away from him without waiting for a response.

“OK, dam is clear!” she called onto the common band, “Thunder, are you clear?”

“Affirm, Storm, breaking off now and heading north, but the rain is starting to mess with the trails!”

“Got it!  Team, standby!”

She dived low to the surface of the reservoir, thankfully now a good distance below the level of the dam, and accelerated into the rain.  After a few seconds, she adjusted her rear legs and started her trail, searching above her for Thunderlane’s.  The moonlight was weak and the storm clouds above were dark, seeming to swallow what little silver glow there was available, but Storm Shadow could pick out her wingpony’s slowly dissipating trail above.  Adjusting course a little, she started to climb, passing up through the contrail for a few hundred lengths and then back down, intertwining her own until they merged together.

“Here goes!”  she called, and struck her hooves together.  As she did so, she opened out her rear legs a little, stopping her own trail, and rolled hard to the right.

The her hooves were fast enough, though, as the electrical sparks spread rapidly along the contrail, crawling like a living being across the surface of the tubular cloud.  A fraction of a second later, the trails did their job as the storm above her finally let go, a huge lightning bolt striking the trail less than a half-mile behind her.  The sparks on the trails glowed like hot coals as the electricity spread through them, then arced down to the water’s surface from the low point, harmlessly grounding out away from land.

Storm Shadow dived low to the water and beat her wings frantically in the now-driving rain, pushing hard for the southern shoreline.  She flew under her own trail, sparking and glowing from the excess electricity of the occasional lightning bolt from the storm above, thankfully now discharging into the centre of the reservoir behind her.

“I’m clear!” called Storm Shadow.  “Let ‘em rip!”

“OK, team, you heard her!  Let’s get the chain reaction underway!”

Storm Shadow scanned the dark sky above her, using the illumination from the now more frequent flashes of lightning.  Spotting movement a few miles to the west, she began a slow climb.  She found Blossomforth and Derpy galloping along the side of the cloud, using their wings to hold them in place as they ran at 90 degrees to the ground.  Behind the two ponies, Storm Shadow could see the clouds light up as each hooffall triggered the lightning inside, building and flashing, heading inwards towards the centre of the storm where the electrical path to ground was easiest.

“It’s working!” she called on the common band.  “Chain reaction on the south side!”

“Got it, we’re underway on the north side as well!” replied Rainbow Dash.

She adjusted course and matched pace with the two mares galloping along the side of the cloud.  Below, visible under the edge of the cloud, the space between the underside of the storm and the water’s surface flashed with angry blasts of electricity as the storm poured electrical energy and rainwater into the reservoir below.  Trapped between the hills on each side and the storm overhead, the air began to heat from the lightning blasts pummelling the water’s surface, causing random updrafts and currents to spill up and outward towards the weather ponies.

“Rainbow, Storm, we’re seeing some instability again over here.”

“Copy that, Storm,” came the reply, “Let it go, minor stormcloud breakaways are OK at this point.  Intervene if it gets too bad.”

“Got it.”

By this point, Derpy and Blossomforth had finished their pass and broken away from the storm wall, looping around to join up with Storm Shadow.  The three mares watched as a small stormcloud drifted away from the southern wall, headed out at a right angle away from the storm and the valley below.  The leading edge of the storm had just about reached the dam and the rain was pounding down hard; some was beginning to fall beyond the dam into the valley below.

“Storm!  Another breakaway!” called Blossomforth, diving in towards the dark bank of clouds.  This one was much larger and wasn’t breaking away as cleanly as before, with parts already heading beyond the line formed by the dam.

Storm Shadow  rolled hard, following Blossomforth but adjusting her course to intercept the cloud a little further out.  To her left, Derpy lined up to do the same.  With an audible grunt, Blossomforth hit the cloud with both forehooves extended, followed a few seconds later by Storm Shadow a hundred lengths away, then Derpy a few seconds after that.  The Storm Chaser could feel the momentum of the breakaway slowly adjust under the combined power of the three pegasi, furiously beating their wings.

“Almost there,” said Blossomforth. “Contact!”

The cloudbank shifted suddenly, unexpectedly, as the trailing edge was absorbed by the main body of the storm.  Storm Shadow could feel the electricity make her mane stand on end as she pulled her hooves back and banked away.  She had just spotted Derpy do the same when the lightning bolt stuck, leaping from the end of the cloudbank and striking the mailmare’s right wing, sending tendrils of light arcing across her back and into her left wing, too.  Derpy’s scream of pain echoed across the common band, cutting into Storm Shadow’s soul.
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Storm Shadow banked hard and pumped her wings as she dived after the now-freefalling pony, concerned voices starting to echo over the common band asking what had happened.  The Storm Chaser ignored them, concentrating on picking out the tumbling pegasus in the darkness and the rain.  With another hard pump of her wings, Storm Shadow swooped underneath Derpy, allowing the mailmare to land across her back, just in front of her wings.  With a bobble as the extra weight settled, she banked a little before a blast of lightning illuminated the ground in front of her - immediately in front of her.

“Celestia!” she swore, banking hard to the right to avoid the side of the hill that formed most of her view, driving the two weather ponies back towards the reservoir and under the edge of the storm.

“Quiet, everypony!  What the hay is going on over there?!” called Rainbow on the common band.  “Storm?  Blossom?”

“Lightning Strike!” called Blossomforth.  “Derpy took a hit and Storm dived after her!  I can’t see either of them!”

“Storm?  Derpy?  Report!”

Storm Shadow blinked her eyes against the driving rain and pumped her tiring wings against the howling wind.   She could feel the blonde mare twitching, her stomach laid across Storm Shadow’s withers.

“I got her...” she gasped, “Derpy, can you hear me?”

She was rewarded by a low, weak moan.

“Wha- happ-“

“Derpy!   You OK?  Storm, where are you?” asked Rainbow, concerned.

“We’re under -  the -  storm!” gasped Storm Shadow, fighting to stay aloft as they were buffeted around by the turbulence.

“What the hay!?  Get outta there!” called Rainbow Dash.

“Trying -  to -  “ grunted Storm Shadow, as another bolt of lightning illuminated the Tartarian landscape around them, allowing her to look for the closest edge of the storm and the hills forming the edge of the reservoir.  As she picked a likely looking gap, she felt Derpy moving on her back.

“Derpy, you OK?”

“I -   I think so,” came the reply, “What happ-  LOOK OUT!”

Storm Shadow, focused on the gap between the hills, didn’t see what Derpy had screamed about.  The other’s legs suddenly tightened around her body – hard – and dragged their flight path to the right, doubtless as Derpy opened at least one wing fully, acting like an airbrake.

“Der-“ was all she managed to get out before the world exploded in front of her.  The lightning bolt barely missed them, arcing from the still-energised contrail just ahead and filling Storm Shadow’s world with white light and fury.  A few seconds of screaming later, she realised that she was still alive and could hear again.  A few blinks of the eyes and...

“Derpy!  Derpy, I can’t see!” she shouted in terror.  The lightning had filled her vision with white, which had rapidly faded to a dull violet and nothing more.

“I can!” called Derpy, slightly more energetically than before.  Storm Shadow could feel Derpy’s racing heartbeat on her back, the mailmare still clutching tightly with all four legs.  “Try to hold altitude!”

“Derpy? Storm?  Can you hear me?” That was Rainbow Dash again.

“I-“  Storm Shadow closed her eyes; it made no difference to what she could see but at least it made more sense instinctually; falling back on her flight training, she concentrated on the sensation from her inner ear, feeling the buffeting and trying to stay on an even keel.

“Rainbow, Storm, we’re still airb-“

Rainbow’s voice cut across the comms again.  “Storm, Derpy, this is Rainbow, come in!”

“Rainbow, can you hear me?” asked Storm Shadow.

“Can anypony hear them?  Blossomforth, can you see them?  Can you hear them?”

“Negative, boss, I can’t see them, I don’t know if they’ve ditched or not.”

“Coming left!” called Derpy, and again Storm Shadow felt the dragging sensation, pulling the two of them left as Derpy extended and then retracted a wing.  Storm Shadow kept pumping her wings, trusting the other mare to keep them going in the right direction.

“OK, that’s it.   Everypony, everypony, clear the area, this storm needs to end right now.”

“Boss, what are you doing?”

“I said get clear, Thunderlane!  I’m getting up above this storm and giving it a buck in the teeth!”

Storm Shadow tried to ignore the voices, they obviously couldn’t hear her and they couldn’t help her.

They flew on for what felt like hours but couldn’t have been longer than a few seconds.  Each correction and overcorrection left Storm Shadow feeling uncertain that she was even flying the right way up.  Another lightning bolt fried the air nearby, thankfully far enough away that the noise was the worst part; even the turbulent air superheated by the passage of so much energy felt weak compared to what had gone before.

Storm Shadow tried to adjust her course again, and once more felt the drag as Derpy struggled to correct their course.  With another wobble, a cramp in her right wing and overarching fatigue finally catching up to her, she felt the world tilt again.

“Derpy!  I can’t hold it, I think we’re going to crash!”

She felt Derpy twist her head around and place it alongside her own, their cheeks rubbing together.

“Don’t worry, you’re with an expert!”

With that, Storm Shadow felt a pair of wings encircle her head as they spiralled into the dark earth below.




 
 

Storm Shadow didn’t know how long she’d been out; when she opened her eyes the darkness had been replaced by a violet colour but beyond that she couldn’t tell.  The thunder rolling in the distance was all the evidence she needed to tell that the storm was still blowing; the rain running down her face when she tilted her head up as if to look into the sky was mere confirmation.  A questing hoof to her right found the warm but unmoving hoof of her friend.

“Derpy?” she croaked.

Before she could get a reply, the sky above her lit up; her violet vision turned white in the centre, with a full spectrum forming a perfect circle around the white patch.  It faded quickly, but a second or two later a loud rumbling rolled over Storm Shadow’s body; not thunder, she knew thunder, what was that...?

The rain intensified then died, suddenly.

“Derpy...?” she croaked again, slipping from consciousness.






 
A dog’s bark.  That was a dog, right?

“Whacha got, Winona?  Go on, girl, whacha got?”

More barking.  Yes, definitely a dog.

“Nuts!  There they are.  Hey, everypony, they’re here!  Comet, laht up that fancy horn ‘a yours and give Twi’ the signal.”

Storm Shadow cracked one eye open to see a bright red streak blast across her blurry vision.

“Now don’t ya worry there, sugarcube, help’s here.”

Her vision faded as she slipped away once more.




 
 

“Derpy.  Derpy...”

Storm Shadow woke slowly, moaning softly to herself.  She felt around with one hoof, feeling the soft bed, the crisp sheets, the hooves, the blanket, the- wait, hooves?

She heard the rattle of a curtain being pulled back.

 “Dinky!  Get down from there!”

“But mom, she was calling your name!”

 “Derpy?” asked Storm Shadow, recognising the voice.  She tried to open her eyes.

“Hey, roomie!  How are you feeling?”

“I, uh, can’t see,” said Storm Shadow, reaching up to her face.  Her head was bandaged, pads taped over each eye.  A pair of hooves gently touched hers, pushing them down, away from her face.

“It’s OK, the docs just wanted to cover them up.  You were flash-blinded by the lightning bolt; your eyesight should recover soon.  What about the rest of you?”

Storm Shadow moved each leg, feeling twinges and aches but nothing major.  An attempt to move her right wing was met with a sharp stab of pain.

“Just my wing, I think.  What about you?”

“Just some cuts and bruises, a minor sprain in my wing.  The lightning strike – the first one, I mean – burned a few feathers and gave me bad muscle spasms for a while, but I should be out of here tomorrow and airborne again soon after.  Sparkler, could you take Dinky and get the doctor for me, please, and tell him Miss Shadow is awake.”

“Sure, mom.”

“OK!”

Storm Shadow heard the filly’s hooves rattle onto the tiled floor and out through the doorway, followed by slightly heavier 
hoofsteps at a more dignified pace.

“I- I just wanted to thank you, Storm, for saving me,” continued Derpy once her daughters were out of earshot.   “I was falling, my wings were spasming from the electricity... I didn’t think I was going to make it.  Then you caught me.”

Derpy laid her hoof in Storm Shadow’s.

“Hey, you saved me, too.  Wrapping yourself around me like that, you crazy mare, you could have been killed!  And that’s not even mentioning that we’d have flown right into that lightning bolt if you hadn’t swerved us.  How did you know where it would strike?”

Storm Shadow could imagine Derpy’s bashful face.

“I just, well, I felt it.  The way the air moved, the feel of the electricity in the air, the thermals.  I could feel where it would go a few seconds before it did.”

“Ah, you’re awake!  How are you feeling?”  That was a new voice, a stallion.

“Uh, just my wing, and my eyes,” said Storm Shadow.

“The wing was badly twisted on impact, you’ll have to stay off them for a few days.  As for your eyes, well, let’s take a look.”
Storm Shadow felt the bandage around her head being unwound, then the left pad was lifted.  She cracked the eyelid open to see a somewhat blurry fawn-coated unicorn stallion peering closely at her through a pair of rimless glasses.

“Now, follow the light, please.”

The tip of his horn lit up with a gentle yellow light and he moved his head around her, tracking her eyes’ movement.  Another quick blip of magic uncovered her other eye and the test was repeated.  He nodded, satisfied, then replaced the pads over her eyes again.

“Looks like they’re coming along nicely.  We’ll leave them bandaged overnight but we should be able to take them off in the morning.  For now, you should get some rest.”

She listened to his hoofsteps as he walked away, then heard him speaking out in the hallway.

“All of you?  Good heavens, very well, but keep it short, they need their rest.”

A veritable stampede of hoofsteps could be heard, along with a cacophony of voices as numerous ponies rushed into the room.  Storm Shadow felt her shoulderblades trying to dig their way through the headboard of the bed at the chorus of greetings and clamour of questions.

“Hey, HEY!” called Derpy.  “For Celestia’s sake, everypony, keep it down!  Her eyes are still bandaged, and barging in here mob-hoofed isn’t helping matters!”

There was a stunned silence for a few seconds before anypony dared speak.

“Now, I’m going to go and stretch my legs with my daughters.  And maybe find a muffin.”

Storm Shadow felt the air move around her ear as Derpy leaned in close to whisper to her.

“Besides, the other doctor who was here earlier was really cute, I’m sure he’s around here somewhere.  I wonder if he’s single.  And if he likes foals...”

She cleared her throat and spoke out loud again.

“Remember, one at time!”

With that, Derpy and her daughters were gone in a patter of hoofsteps.

“Uh, sorry, Stormy,” said Rainbow Dash.  “How are you feeling?”

“I’ll be OK in a few days,” said Storm Shadow.  “How is everyone?  What happened with the storm?”

“We’re all fine,” - that was Blossomforth – “The boss pulled a sonic rainboom and dumped most of the rest of the rain straight into the valley.”

“I’ve not found a storm yet that can take a sonic rainboom right in the teeth and keep going,” said Rainbow Dash, proudly. 
 “We filled Solar Glory pretty effectively; the engineers were a bit worried about getting it all at once but they released some outflow down into the river and topped off the three smaller reservoirs in the valley as well.  Mission accomplished.”

“Well, part one, at least,” said Storm Shadow.

“Part one?  What do you mean?” asked Thunderlane.

“I, uh, I’ll tell you later,” said Rainbow Dash.  “Guys, we’d better go and let her rest.”

Storm Shadow listened to the weather team ponies badgering Rainbow Dash as she rapidly retreated into the hallway.

“Anyone still here?” asked Storm Shadow.

“Uh, hi, it’s Twilight Sparkle,” said Twilight.  “And I’ve got Spike here.”

“Hey, guys, thanks for dropping by.”

“We’re glad you’re OK; I could hear parts of what happened through the crystal, I was so worried.”

Storm Shadow nodded.  “Yeah, after the lightning strike, I could hear everypony talk but I don’t think they could hear me.”

“Fascinating,” replied Twilight, “Bright Spark postulated that lightning might interfere with electromagics in his paper in Applied Whizbangery last year.  Do go on.”

Storm Shadow paused, hearing a strange scratching noise.  “Are you taking notes?”

“Uh.” 

There was a sound of a saddlebag being opened and several items being hurriedly stuffed inside.  “Come to think of it, why don’t we talk after you get out of here, I’d love to hear more.”

“Sure thing, Twilight,” replied Storm Shadow, stifling a laugh.

“Come along, Spike, we should let her rest.”

“OK, Twilight, I’ll be right along.”

There were more hoofsteps as the unicorn wandered out of the room.

“Uh, Miss Shadow?” asked a hesitant voice.

“What is it, Spike?”

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about the whole hitpony thing.”

“Thanks, Spike.  I’m sorry about the whole implying-you’d-burn-down-the-library thing.”

“Ah, it’s OK.  Is there anything I can do for you before we go?”

“Actually, Twilight mentioned you’re quite the scribe, and you write letters for her?”

There was a slight sensation of weight on her rear hooves as Spike climbed onto the end of the bed.  She heard a scroll being unravelled.

“Ready!”

“Dear Dad, now don’t panic or anything, I’m fine, but I’m in hospital...”
 



 
 

Storm Shadow stood in the crowd of pegasi in the library and watched with amusement as Rainbow Dash pushed a familiar butter-yellow Pegasus through the door, wearing what looked like a tree costume.   She shared an inquisitive glance with Blossomforth.

“With those guys, I find it’s best not to ask,” said Blossomforth in response to the raised eyebrow.

Storm Shadow shook her head and smiled.  She’d been released from the hospital that morning with a reasonably clean bill of health, eyes still a little sore but functioning fine and the wing sprain healing, slowly.  Of course, she still had to stay grounded for a few days, much to her annoyance, but it could have been much, much worse.  Best of all, though, her father had pulled through for her yet again, and managed to arrange the substitute observer / wingpower referee as requested.  Sometimes, being a Storm Chaser had its advantages.

 With a shake of her head, Rainbow Dash hit the light switch and nodded to Spike, standing by the projector.  Storm Shadow looked across at the screen as the numbers counted down – she’d seen this movie countless times before but the old-fashioned narration and animation always made her smile.

“Every living thing relies on the life-giving nourishment of rainwater...”