//------------------------------// // Hurricane - The24thPegasus // Story: Operation Westhorse // by PropMaster //------------------------------// Rainbow was starting to grow sick of water. Ever since she left the rocky lands behind in the east, she’d seen nothing but water and waves. Maybe a day’s flight after departing, she crossed some islands and stopped briefly, realizing this would be the last landmass she’d see until she crossed the ocean. There were some people on the islands, but they weren’t all that populated. There were a lot of yellow birds flitting from branch to branch, though. They were pretty to look at, and probably the last colorful thing she’d seen before leaving the islands behind. And then there was water. For days and days, she’d flown for as long as she could, just trying to cross the vast ocean. She was so sick of seeing it that she was tempted to push herself just to get it over with. But that would’ve been a bad idea; the distance she’d lose from exhausting herself in a quick sprint would mean that she’d only have to stare at the ocean longer. At least there were a lot of clouds to rest on, though. She must’ve been approaching a budding storm, because there were more and more clouds in front of her each day. But she wasn’t going to complain, not at the moment, at least. They were the only thing offering her rest and respite over the ocean, and she was thankful that they were there so she could get some sleep. Otherwise, sheer attrition would’ve eventually gotten the best of her, and without anywhere to sleep and rest, she would’ve plummeted into the ocean and drowned once her wings couldn’t carry her any longer. Occasionally, she saw ships steaming across the ocean far beneath her. They were much more massive than any ship she’d seen back home; they could probably carry twenty or thirty Equestrian freighters on their decks. She was tempted to fly down and talk to somebody, but then she’d have to give up all the altitude she’d gained on her flight, and she’d only have to climb back up when she wanted to continue flying. The winds were too rough and unpredictable down on the ocean’s surface for continuous flying, and the salt spray would probably cake her limbs in so much salt that they’d hardly be able to move. Plus, salty feathers don’t carry a pegasus all that far. When the days ended, the moon would rise overhead, casting a ghostly illumination on the rippling ocean surface. Rainbow would spend hours staring at the moon, watching it rise and fall, studying every crater, every detail. The humans said there was a man in the moon, but Rainbow couldn’t really see him all that well. She thought she saw something that might have looked like a human head, but she couldn’t be sure. At least the Mare in the Moon had had the courtesy to look distinguishable, despite her tragic history. Rainbow wondered who controlled the sun and the moon on Earth, and if their brother had once tried to seize power like Princess Luna and had been banished. The humans had never said anything about that, though, what little she’d talked to them. The clouds started getting thicker and thicker the more Rainbow flew to the west. Soon they started interfering with her ability to fly. They were so close together that she couldn’t simply weave around them anymore. So for lack of a better option, Rainbow began to climb. As the clouds continued to tower, Rainbow flapped her wings harder and harder, gaining altitude with every stroke. After a few thousand feet of climbing, Rainbow crested the tallest cloud in her vicinity, but at that point, it’d become a game to her to see how high she could climb. So she kept going. Higher. Higher. Higher. Sweat soaked every inch of Rainbow’s being. She felt like she was more sweat than mare—for a moment. She suddenly felt very cold, and as she looked around, the sweat on her body began crystallizing, turning into tiny flakes of ice. Every breath she took of the thin air turned into a cloud of vapor that just hung in the sky, unmoving in front of her face. There was so little air that she had to frantically beat her wings just to keep altitude. She’d flown high before, but never this high. Smirking, Rainbow shut her eyes, folded her wings at her sides, and fell. She didn’t know how high she was, only that it was easier to measure in miles, not feet. She opened her eyes only after falling for a full minute, when the air began pulling at her mane and tail like fingers, trying to grab onto her and pull her back. She picked up speed, going faster and faster and faster, until finally, gravity couldn’t do anything more for her. Which was disappointing. All it took was a few more flaps of her wings to push her right to the edge of the speed of sound. Just as she was about to break it, though, she spotted a swirling mass of clouds ahead of her, with a distinctive hole in the middle. Rainbow grinned and twitched her feathers a millimeter to adjust her course. It took her another full minute of diving to make it to the top of the hurricane, and then she was plummeting through the eye before she could even blink. Thick cloud walls reached up around her like columns of marble trying to touch the sky. The storm roared and howled just outside of the dozen miles she had to herself on either side, dead center in the hurricane’s eye. With such low air pressure, it hardly took any more effort from Rainbow to pull off a sonic rainboom. The cone of air around her shattered, and a ring of color burst forth in a blinding blast of light. She changed her course almost immediately after, chasing the rainbow rocketing westwards, but staying a mile behind it until it hit the eyewall. She looked around herself as the clouds tumbled and collapsed. Her rainboom had decapitated the head of the hurricane, and now the storm began to fall apart all around her. Which was a good thing, too; she didn’t want to have to deal with a hurricane when she finally arrived. Besides, she could see a few islands in the distance, green and yellow on top of vibrant and clear blue waters and a white seafloor. She was close. Just a little further. A feather or two flew out of her wings as she disappeared into the west, riding the air currents of the storm she shattered in her wake.