//------------------------------//
// Storm Chasers 
// Story: Tides of the Past 
// by King-Mac-13 
//------------------------------//

Excerpt from ‘Eyes of the Hurricane,’ a novel
“This is crazy!” The young stallion lamented his situation on the ship. The ship was being tossed by the waves of a storm and making him sick.
“Crazy? No, young one. This is the truth of the seas!” The captain let out a hardy laugh. “I’ve ridden these waves since I was a foul. I can tell you that this is the calm.”
“What part of this is calm?!”
“For one thing, this is just a small storm. This is nothing compared to the storms of the Dreaded Hurricane!”
“Dreaded Hurricane? What the hey does that have to do with this?”
“It’s just a comparison, son. Pay attention. And this is a breeze compared to that awful storm.”
“What made that storm so special?”
“According to legends, the storm was alive.”
“Seriously?”
“That be the story. It moves erratically and it can chase the ponies that dare to question its power.”
“You can’t be serious…”
“As serious as a hurricane, boy.”
“Normal or living?” The young stallion joked.
“Hope you never see the Dread Hurricane…”
-\/-
“So… we just have to find a storm, why is it so hard?” Rainbow Dash complained.
“I don’t know.” Applejack walked along keeping an eye to the sky, while still making sure she wouldn’t hit anything. “Memory serves, that Grimoire said that this Raiju… I think that’s what it’s called, was easy to find.”
“It is possible… that he was lying.”
“I don’t know. He didn’t seem like he was lying.”
“But can we really trust him?”
“I didn’t say we could. I’m just saying. It almost seems like he wants us to find these things.”
“You think so?”
“He could escape whenever he wanted. But he just sticks around and lets us go out to find these things? Seems a bit weird.”
“True… but when you guys were down in Sombra’s weird magic study, I asked him a few questions.”
“Like what?”
“How we could stop the Elementals from going crazy.”
“Alright… so how are we supposed to stop a storm?”
“He… said we couldn’t.”
“Do you believe him?”
“Heck no! I’m the best flier in Ponyville and I’ve dealt with plenty of storms. I can totally deal with whatever we find.”
“Yeah… but, that’s just it. We can deal with whatever we find, but he’s just sitting back in Ponyville? When we met him, he was trying to wake these things up and tricked us into doing it for him. So why just let himself be captured and taken to Ponyville while we stop him?”
“You’re starting to sound like Twilight trying to figure out a puzzle…”
“I guess you’re right. I’m thinking too much about this…”
The loud boom of thunder caught the ponies’ attention. They ran (or flew, in the case of Rainbow) toward the sound. When they arrived, it was just a normal storm at the hooves of the local weather ponies.
“This is ridiculous!” Rainbow lamented. “Are we supposed to just follow every sound of thunder just to find out there’s nothing out of place?!”
“Come on sugar cube… we need to keep looking.”
Something different caught their ears. A howl. A terrifying combination of the cry of a wolf and the powerful burst of thunder. They looked to one another and nodded, knowing that it had to be the Raiju. They rushed toward the sound as fast as they could. As they made their way to the sound, they found a large hurricane cloud above the area.
“That must be it!” Rainbow Dash shouted.
“Yeah… but where is the wolf thing?”
“Must be in the cloud. I’ll go check it out.” Rainbow flew up to the storm. She looked around, but found nothing. When she flew back down, she shrugged. “I can’t find it…”
A bolt of lightning struck the ground, accompanied by a normal form of thunder.
“Wait…” Applejack paused when that happened. “That was normal. What happened to the weird howl?”
“I don’t know.”
“This might not be the right storm…”
“That’s the largest storm I’ve ever seen! It has to be the right one.”
“But, how can we prove it?”
After a moment, Rainbow shouted, “I have an idea! I’ll go up there and break up the clouds. That way, we’ll figure out if there is anything up there!” As she flew up, she stopped just before contact when she noticed nearby Pegasus ponies arranging the clouds. She returned to Applejack, distraught. “Another dud…”
“This is taking too long. What we need, is a better way to get around and check what’s happening.”
“Well, I can do that no problem. Just fly. But… you can’t.”
Applejack smiled. “Not your way…”
\/
They acquired a hot air balloon and made their way around Equestria, trying to find the living storm that eluded them so far. They made record time… at finding normal, uneventful cumulonimbus events. There was nothing out of the ordinary so far. As the sun began to set, they found themselves at the Equestrian coastline. They set the balloon down and headed into a nearby town.
The town was a lively, little village. It was smaller than ponyville, but just as lively. They found an inn and settled down for some sleep. Though… Rainbow Dash slept on a cloud, as usual. When the sun started to rise, they reconvened in the village square, ready to start the search anew. When they found… nothing. The streets were practically empty.
“What’s going on?” Applejack looked around, but the village seemed more like a ghost town.
“Everyone must still be inside.” Rainbow reasoned.
“No… I don’t think that’s right. There must be something else going on.”
“Right ye be, missy.” An older pony trotted up toward them. “We be a community of sea farmers, ya see?”
“Sea… farmers? What’s a sea farmer?”
“Basically what it sounds like. Though… in this case, we farm something other than fruits. We farm salt.”
“Salt?”
“Yep. The ocean is a great source of salt. Granted, we can’t go too far with it. Keep the ocean salty and the life in it stays happy.”
“Okay… so why is everyone gone?”
“They’re all inside, like any smart pony would be.”
“Okay… is there a reason why?”
“Yes, there be. Look out to the horizon.” The old sea pony pointed toward the rising sun. The scene before them was like a painting. A light red tint filled the sky and the clouds seemed fluffy and soft. The sun accented the world before them. Truly, it was a picture of beauty.
“Okay? So, they’re afraid of a pretty sunrise?”
“I take it you never heard of the old sea pony’s mantra… ‘Red skies at night are a sea pony’s delight. Red skies in the morning, sea ponies take warning.’ There be a storm coming. A big one.”
Rainbow Dash sighed. “Another planned storm…”
“Ain’t no planning for this storm… my kid is one of the weather ponies, this is not on schedule. This is something else.”
Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked toward one another. They both knew what the other was thinking, because they were both thinking it. They charged off toward their balloon and made for the sunrise. This time, they were sure they had it.
Applejack kept the balloon above the clouds as best she could, “This might be it!”
“It better be. We’ve been looking around Equestria for a while.” Rainbow Dash flew close to the balloon, just in case.
As they approached the horizon, they noticed that the smaller clouds were getting larger, becoming storm clouds. The storm clouds were getting larger as well. The clouds, created by ponies, were growing beyond what they were meant for. It was unnatural.
“Umm… is that supposed to happen?”
“That shouldn’t even be possible…”
With a powerful crack of thunder, they saw the Raiju. What they didn’t count on was the scale. It was a massive wolf of lightning some three stories tall and as long as a football field. It was standing atop the clouds and was wrapped in lightning. It let out a howl that shattered the sound barrier. Said howl was also accompanied by a series of lightning bolts from the clouds below.
“Well… we found it.” Rainbow flew up toward the Elemental. “Hey!” When she got close, a bolt of lightning flew out from the Raiju and nearly struck Rainbow. “Woah! What the hey?!” Another bolt forced her back toward Applejack’s balloon. “Yeah… I don’t think he’s listening.”
Applejack looked toward the storm, “Then what do we do?”
The Raiju howled again and caused the ponies to cringe at the sound. The clouds continued to grow and the ponies now noticed why. As Raiju got closer to the shore, the clouds nearby just became storms. The storms got more powerful as they moved. Within time, they became a class 3 hurricane.
Applejack forced the balloon higher to avoid the 120 mile per hour (about 193 kilometers per hour) winds. “There has to be something we can do!”
“Okay!” Rainbow looked over the clouds. “I’ll try to break up some of the clouds!”
“Are you sure?”
“Got any better ideas?”
Applejack thought a moment but just sighed. “Go get ‘em.”
Rainbow flew into the clouds and started to bust up the clouds. They were large and powerful, but she was Rainbow Dash! And she wasn’t about to let some clouds stop her. She was going to break this hurricane. She actually did! When she was done, there was only a single cloud beneath the Raiju. She returned to the balloon, slightly tired, but still very much awesome. “There we go. That should do it.”
“Great work Rainbow. At least we know this storm thing can be corralled.”
The Raiju took a deep breath in and let out a powerful howl. The cloud at its feet rapidly expanded and reformed another hurricane, this time a class 4. The Elemental beast let out another roar and sent a chill down the ponies’ spines. Its hurricane was picking up speed and soon reached class 5 (over 157 miles per hour / over 252 kilometers per hour). The winds would cause catastrophic damage to anything in the Raiju’s way.
“What?! That…! That’s insane!” Applejack lamented the failure and looked over toward Rainbow nearby… who wasn’t there.
Rainbow Dash charged toward the hurricane and picked up enough speed to Sonic Rainboom the storm. She broke up the clouds, but with the same result as before. Now she was mad. She charged back toward the storm beast and made to strike the creature. This proved to be a bad idea. Upon contact, Rainbow Dash was electrocuted with the force of a lightning bolt. She flew off the creature at Mach 5 and crashed into Applejack.
What neither could see was Rainbow’s shadow grabbing a bolt of lightning from the Raiju’s body and disappearing with the bolt in tow.
Once she made sure the Pegasus was okay, Applejack looked back toward the Raiju. “How are we supposed to stop that thing?”
Rainbow shook her head and looked at the creature, her conversation with Grimoire in the back of her mind. “We can’t.”
“What? Are you seriously giving up?”
“No! I just… I don’t know what we can do. We can’t touch it. The clouds grow back when I break them up! I just… I don’t know what to do.”
The Raiju continued to rage in the background. It was moving closer to the shore. It would arrive in minutes if it wasn’t stopped.
“Rainbow… how powerful is that storm, exactly?”
“Powerful enough to level the town and anything else in a few minutes. If that…”
“Then what do we do?”
Rainbow tried to think, but she had no answers. “I don’t know…”
The storm passed below the balloon. At one point, the Raiju roared again. However, it was weaker, just barely, but weak enough to be noticed by the ponies.
Rainbow looked at the clouds and saw the Raiju appear smaller. “What the…?” She flew off, with Applejack calling after her, as she made for the clouds. As she flew over the storm, she noticed that the Raiju would fluctuate in size and strength of its roar. She flew back to Applejack. “I have an idea!”
“What do ya mean?”
“I think the wolf thing changes size around the storm. If we go to the eye of the storm, maybe it would be weak enough to work with.”
“It’s worth a shot.”
The two moved toward the center of the clouds. They were constantly being bombarded with roars from the beast. As they approached the eye, the roars became growls and snarls. Upon arriving, they noticed a pair of glowing eyes on the surface of the water below. They silently decided to descend and see what it was that was below. When they arrived, they found a small silver wolf, half the size of a normal pony, standing on the water’s surface.
Rainbow looked at the wolf a moment before commenting, “Wait… are you the wolf from the storm.”
The small creature snarled weakly. “What do you want?” His was a meek and younger voice. One that a pony would not expect from a storm bringer.
“Umm… I’m Rainbow Dash, this is Applejack… and we wanted to… stop you from destroying the town.”
The small wolf looked angered. “Oh really?”
“Yeah. Your storm is too strong. It will destroy the town on the shore and hurt ponies.”
“Is that right? And I suppose you want me to dissipate the clouds. Or make them weaker.”
“That would be nice.”
“Hmm… I’m thinking… NO!” The wolf expanded to a colossal form. They were now just within the storm beyond the eye. “Who are you to think you can command the storm winds?” The Raiju now had a thundering, deep voice. “What makes you ponies think you can stop nature?!”
Rainbow Dash flew up to his face, indignant. “News flash, storm-y, we ponies have been controlling the weather for a long time. Our princesses raise and lower the sun and the moon!”
The Raiju took a deep breath. “Then I suppose you think that means you can control me? I cannot be controlled. I cannot be stopped. I AM THE STORM! And I will not be commanded by any being, much less you ponies!”
“HOLD IT!” Applejack’s balloon rose between the two and forced their attention. “Look mister Raiju, we’re not trying to command you. We just want to make sure nopony gets hurt. Can’t we talk it out and come up with something?”
The Raiju looked over Applejack for a moment before replying. “You have a calmer head then your associate…”
“Hey!” Rainbow wanted to protest, but Applejack kept her quiet for the moment.
“…that said, there is no stopping the storm. It will rage until it is satisfied. There is no way to break the storm.”
“But your storm is too strong for us to let it hit Equestria. Can’t you do something? Change direction, maybe?”
“I can change my storm’s trajectory. If that’s what you’re asking…”
“That would be great!”
“…but to do so, you condemn the new pathway to take on the storm. Can you make that call? Will you ask me to destroy another land to spare your own?”
“What?! Of course not!”
“That’s what you asked of me.”
“That makes no sense!”
“Doesn’t it? Have you ever been through a drought and wished for some rain?”
“Well… yeah.”
“In order to do that, one must take away the rain from another. You force another to drought so you can have the rain you asked for. Nature is a balancing act, foolish ponies. So, what will it be? Shall I continue my path, or are you willing to take responsibility for what may happen?”
“A… I…” Applejack wasn’t sure what she could say to that. She wasn’t expecting that her request could be turned around against her.
The Raiju turned to Rainbow. “What about you? Would you sacrifice another to save your land?”
Rainbow looked him straight in the eye. “I couldn’t do that… I might be the Element of Loyalty, but I can’t bring myself to do that.”
The Raiju growled a moment. “You are still going to try to stop me?”
“With everything I have!”
“I can respect that. But I cannot stop. This storm shall rage!”
“Then I’ll break up the clouds! I’ll do anything to protect Equestria!”
“Except condemn another land to save yours?!”
“I won’t have to! I will stop you!”
The Raiju let out another roar. With it, the storm’s winds picked up again. “You are the first being to challenge me. You have my respect, little pony.”
Rainbow perked up a bit. “Does this mean you’ll stop the storm?”
“No.” The storm continued toward the shore. It was only a matter of time before its winds could level the town.
“But why?! Why are you so willing to destroy everything without thinking?!”
“Foolish, simple minded ponies…” The Raiju walked along the water, passed the ponies, and made for the shore.
It took minutes. The town that the two ponies had stayed the night was gone. Everything had been destroyed: trees uprooted, houses broken by winds, there was nothing left. Applejack and Rainbow Dash lingered over the clouds, looking over the destruction. They had failed.
Or so it seemed. When they landed after the storm passed, they found that the town’s ponies had hidden in a bunker under the city. As they looked over the damage, they were already going over ways to rebuild.
“What? What’s going on?” Rainbow asked as she and Applejack approached the town’s ponies.
The older pony from before greeted them. “What does it look like? We’re having a get together.”
“But… everything was destroyed!”
“Yes, it was. But this ain’t our first big storm. Though… storms that powerful are rare. It was a real powerful one, wasn’t it?” the older sea pony gave a hardy laugh.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked to one another and back at the town’s ponies in shock. They weren’t sure what to think. Rainbow flew up slightly, “Then why would you stay here?!”
The old sea pony laughed again. “That’s just life, friends. It’s never easy, but you stand back up and get yourself ready for next time, wouldn’t be home if we didn’t. That’s why we built a bunker for storms like that.”
“But… how did you know it was coming?”
“You kidding? A storm that big on a flat horizon? It’s hard to miss. The ‘red sky in the morning’ helped, as well. Of course, we have a weather system watching out, just in case. Trust me, we were ready.”
“But… if you had all of that ready, why didn’t you try to stop it?”
“If there’s one thing you learn in this business, it’s that you can’t control everything. We can’t control the tides. We can’t stop the waves. There will always be natural events we can’t control.” The old sea pony returned to his community.
In the back of Rainbow Dash’s mind, the words of Grimoire clawed themselves out of her memory; Raiju is lightning incarnate. You can’t stop it. Give it some time to blow over, and it’ll pass.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash were still confused, but they couldn’t say anything. They looked out to the distance to the storm. They could see that it was breaking up as it reached farther inland. They could see that it behaved like… well, a storm. They decided to head back to Ponyville.
-\/-
Excerpt from K-M-11 (392) Evening
My meeting with the Doctor was a resounding success! He seems rather open minded about the use of Dark magic for the benefit of others. Granted, he had a friend with him; a grey, Pegasus mare with a blonde mane. She seemed nice… but easily distracted. Then again, the Doctor seemed a bit scattered from time to time. In the end, however, I have no complaints. He cannot recreate my experiments, which puts a damper on the idea of being ‘peers.’ That said, if there is one pony that is willing to give my method a chance, there should be more. I need only to find them.
I remain in the castle, with the Leviathan watching over my actions. However, the Elemental’s cursed form allows for many opportunities for escape. That said, I feel it’s a personal challenge to remove his chains. Release the Leviathan, as it were. I have also been interviewing the Elemental. He found out about a portal in the castle and that three of his offspring are still alive in another world. I could see it in his eyes, he wants to see what has become of them. Speaking of, his Helios and Selene visions are quite astounding. It always felt like he was only looking at me with one eye… now I know why. The stories about his eyes weren’t far from the truth after all. But that’s not my story to tell. For now, I look forward.
Magic report: Some of my Shadow Tags have dissipated. However, as a result, I have some of the ingredients for my spell. Soon, I’ll have everything I need. I wait with bated breath.
-Grimoire Maleficarum.