//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - Storm Breaking // Story: Ode to a Monster // by Tekkonair //------------------------------// The scratching of quill and the sound of Twilight’s muttering, as per usual, filled the Ponyville library. The unicorn in question was sat at a desk, and on the desk was a battered, aged book bound in mouldering brown leather made of plant matter, its yellowed pages turned with the utmost care for fear of damaging the delicate paper. Twilight didn’t even dare use her magic to turn the pages, instead levitating a wood dowel and using that to turn them. Next to the book, Twilight’s quill scribbled down observations as she combed over the tome, the ink well kept far away from the tome, on a shelf below the level of the desk in case of spills. She was suddenly torn from her musing by a loud crash above her. She yelped, dropping the dowel and quill and throwing up a shield to protect the tome as her head snapped around to see Rainbow Dash, predictably, upside down in the side of a bookshelf. “Hehe… Hey Twi!” Dash grinned at her in embarrassment, waving a hoof. Twilight sighed and facehooved, closing her eyes. “Dash, do you really have to burst in like that every time you visit?” She lowered her hoof and looked up, glad to see Dash hadn’t actually broken the window this time. “Sorry Twi, hit a wind shear. You know how it is.” She disentangled herself from the bookshelf and landed on her hooves, turning to see Twilight’s deadpan stare. “Dash, I’m a unicorn, so no, I don’t know how it is.” “... Right, yeah…” She sheepishly scratched the back of her head as she looked around, eyes settling on the shield still covering the book. “Oh hey, since when could you do that?” She asked, pointing a wing. “Oh, that,” Twilight glanced to the shield, dropping the spell. “After the Changeling invasion, Shiny thought it would be best if I knew how to properly protect myself, so he’s been teaching me some defensive spells when he can.” “Woah, so can you blast the bad guys now?” Dash asked, excitedly rearing onto two legs as she pantomimed blasting away at invisible foes. “No, no.” Twilight shook her head rapidly. “Just defensive spells, like that shield. I don’t know any offensive spells, and I’m happy to keep it that way.” Dash blinked, dropping back to all four hooves. “Seriously? But combat magic is so cool!” “No, it isn’t! Combat magic is designed to hurt other creatures. I know why it exists and why the Guard need to know it, but I don’t like that it exists at all!” Dash opened her mouth to respond, but closed it when she saw Twilight’s upset expression. “Right, sorry, forget I mentioned it.” She scratched the back of her head again. “So uh, what’re you working on?” She asked, trying to change the subject back to more comfortable topics. “Oh!” Twilight’s ears perked up, the almost-argument immediately forgotten. “Princess Luna sent it to me! She found it in her personal library whilst looking for something.” Dash cautiously approached the desk, tilting her head and grimacing at the book’s condition. “Looks kinda… Mouldy. I thought those libraries were meant to have fancy preserving magic to stop that happening?” “They are enchanted to prevent degradation, yes. But Princess Luna said that this book was in this state already when she added it to her library.” Dash grunted in understanding. “So… What is it? That writing isn’t Equish.” “Nope! No one knows the language, not even the Princesses! Princess Luna said it must predate Equestria! Imagine that, Dash! We know almost nothing about pre-Equestria history! Even the Hearth’s Warming Eve story is only known about because of oral tradition, but this book contains information about what came before Equestria!” Twilight bounced in place in excitement, and Dash couldn’t help but smirk before looking back to the book. “But, if no one knows how to read it, how can you translate it?” Twilight paused in her bouncing, looking to Rainbow Dash. “We have an extremely similar alphabet, so it’s likely modern Equish has at least some similarities with this old language. Some of the words are similar enough to Equish that they can be reliably translated, and some are almost identical. For instance, this word here.” She pointed with the dowel. “Antiqua? Sounds like ‘antique’.” Twilight nodded rapidly. “Yep! And this one here, ‘prima’. If it isn’t just a coincidence, ‘prima’ could mean ‘primary’.” “Like feathers?” Dash turned to Twilight, extending a wing for emphasis. “Or ‘primary’ as in ‘first’. It’s… A lot of trial and error. More than I’d like, really, but translation is like that. Once you understand the context, it’s a lot easier to fill in the blanks. It helps that some of the words used in higher academics or magic studies are almost certainly lifted from this language, or at least share a common source.” Dash frowned in confusion at that, tilting her head. “How do you mean?” “This word here.” She points to her notes. “’Scuptae’. The Scuptae school of magic concerns shield magic. Like the one I used earlier.” “Ohhh. Like how some military ranks still have the same name after centuries? Like, Commander. We know Hurricane from the Hearth’s Warming tale was a Commander.” “That’s… Actually a very good observation, Dash.” Twilight said with some surprise, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully. “Maybe that’s why these words are the same or very similar, because they carried over from the past… We already know that languages change over time, just look at how Princess Luna talks. So given enough time… It’s a guess, really, but Equish could have developed from this language!” “Languages change that much?” “Maybe. But it’s a fair assumption that Equish developed from this language, and it could make translation easier if my guess is right…” “So um, why did the Princess send you this in the first place?” Dash asked, once again scratching the back of her head. “Oh, right. Apparently she was trying to translate it back before the whole… Nightmare Moon thing. And when she found it again, she decided to send it to me.” “She couldn’t translate it?” “She says she doesn’t have enough time to dedicate to it. Which, well, she is a Princess after all. She’s been very busy with the Guard lately; the Changeling invasion has highlighted some… Weaknesses.” Twilight winced a little. “Yeah, she wasn’t exactly happy after the wedding.” Dash cringed a bit at remembering how Luna had responded to finding out about the invasion. “That doesn’t really explain why she sent it to you know though. I mean, it couldn’t have waited?” Twilight shrugged as she looked at the book. “I don’t know either. She just said that she remembered it being important, but everything beyond that was a bit hazy and she doesn’t remember why it was important.” Dash nodded, and shot Twilight a grin. “Well, whatever the reason, she definitely chose the right pony!” Twilight blinked, turning back to Dash with wide eyes. “You really think so?” She asked, a little uncertain, causing Dash to roll her eyes. “Oh come on, Twi! You’re the smartest pony I know. Except maybe the Princesses, but alicorns don’t count.” Twilight blushed a little at the compliment. “I’m not that good…” “Twi, I thought we went over this after the whole Trixie thing.” Dash rolled her eyes again. “You’re not gonna turn into a braggart like her if you accept a compliment once in a while.” “I suppose you’re right… Wait, did you just use a word like ‘braggart’ in a sentence?” Twilight smirked as Dash’s eyes widened. “Gaaah you’re starting to rub off on me Twi!” She groaned, shoulders slumping. “I gotta get out of here before I turn into an egghead as well.” “Like you thought reading Daring Do was going to?” “...” Dash coughed, looking away as she blushed a little. “That reminds me, is the new one here yet?” “As I told you yesterday, you’ll be the first to know.” Twilight blinked. “Well, third, after Spike and I, obviously.” “Right right. I’ll uh, I’ll leave you too it. Oh, you still coming to lunch with the girls?” “Of course, looking forward to it!” Dash grinned, nodding at Twilight’s answer. “Great! Well, gotta dash!” She grinned, spreading her wings, but caught herself as Twilight moved to shield the book, shooting the pegasus a glare. “Right, right. Sorry… Hehe, bye Twi!” She said, instead trotting out of the library via the door. Twilight sighed, relieved Dash hadn’t done anything to damage the book. Her relief lasted until she turned back to the bookshelf she had crashed into, and the mess she’d left behind. “Rainbow Dash!” “Equestria to Dashie, come in Dashie.” Teased a bubbly-voice, its owner on the brink of launching herself at the pegasus. Rainbow shook herself from her memories and turned to Pinkie. “Huh?” Asked Rainbow, blinking and yawning. “Sorry Pinkie, I dozed off. You were saying?” She looked around the table, the six friends about halfway through lunch. “We were busy discussing our previous romantic exploits.” Said Rarity, a smirk on her face. “And you’ve been oddly quiet this entire time. Something you’re hiding from us?” She asked, arching an eyebrow. “Oh, right. Nothing serious, no. I talked about the thing with Gilda back in flight school, but that’s the closest I’ve come to a proper relationship.” Dash’s expression turned a little sour at the mention of the gryphon, but returned to normal after a second. “Well, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before someone catches your eye, or you catch theirs.” Rarity said with a smile. “Heh, thanks Rares.” Dash shot her a grin before taking a bite of her sandwich. “Don’t mention it, darling. Oh, on an unrelated note.” Rarity took a sip of her tea, setting the cup down. “Are you free later this afternoon? I had a reservation at a restaurant in town, but my friend had to cancel and everyone else is busy.” The other mares at the table nodded. “This afternoon? I should be free, but there’s likely to be a storm coming in this evening from the Everfree, so if something happens I’ll need to run. If that happens, just let me know what I owe you tomorrow, yeah?” “Understandable. And don’t worry, it’s not one of those ‘fancy’ places you detest.” She said with a teasing tone, causing Dash to sigh in relief. “The table’s booked for six o’clock, no dress code or anything similar.” “Six, got it.” Dash nodded, grinning. Applejack looked to Dash, concern creasing her brow. “Ya said a storm’s comin’ in? Anythin’ we should be worried about?” She asked. “Probably a good idea to do your normal storm prep. Make sure no branches are gonna come down, that sort of thing. Plan is to break it at the edge of the Everfree, so your farm and your cottage might get caught.” She nodded to Applejack and Fluttershy in turn. “But storms out of the Everfree are unpredictable anyway, so… Just do your normal prep and keep an ear out for the sirens.” Later that afternoon, Rainbow Dash took off from her cloud home, gently gliding down into town. She glanced over to the Everfree, frowning at the dark clouds hanging over the forest. That’s probably going to hit tonight… She shook her head, putting it out of head for the time being as she angled her wings, spotting the restaurant, a place called Solo Mio. She landed outside, taking a second to detangle her mane before trotting inside, smiling at the hostess stood inside. “Hey, there’s a table under the name Rarity?” She asked. The hostess nodded, looking down and squinting at the table reservations behind the stand. “Just over there, corner table. Miss Rarity just arrived a minute ago.” “I see her, thanks.” She gave the hostess another smile before trotting over to the white unicorn. “Hey Rares!” She called out once closer, sliding into the chair across from her, causing her to jump a little. “Goodness, Rainbow, you startled me.” She put a hoof to her chest for a moment. “Sorry, must have been lost in my thoughts.” “Heh, sorry, might have been a little loud.” She gave an apologetic smile to patrons who had looked over at her greeting. “No worries, darling. You certainly took ‘no dress code’ to heart.” She said, appraising Rainbow’s appearance with an arched eyebrow. Rainbow blinked, looking down at herself before looking back to Rarity, noticing the necklace she was wearing. “I mean, I showered at least?” She said with a nervous grin. “I… Suppose that’s fair, I did say no dress code. Still, would it kill you to, I don’t know, do something with your appearance?” She asked, keeping her tone gentle. “I guess I could have done something with my mane maybe? Never really felt the need to do that, though.” Rarity hummed, nodding. “I suppose your mane is already flashy enough.” Rainbow turned to look at Rarity, raising an eyebrow of her own. “You ok Rares? You don’t normally go on about this unless you’re trying to talk me into wearing a dress.” Rarity paused for a moment, glancing around at the other patrons, before sighing. “I suppose Applejack’s absence is no excuse to not be honest with one another. Very well. That nasty business with Discord has made me examine some of my behaviours a little more closely than before, and I’ve come to the realisation that I may be somewhat jealous of you.” Rainbow blinked in surprise, opening her mouth to speak before stopping herself as a waiter trotted over. “Good afternoon, ladies, and welcome to Solo Mio.” He said, deftly sliding a pair of menus out of his saddlebag and setting them before the mares. “Can I get you anything to drink?” “A glass of Chardonneigh, please.” The waiter nodded, looking to Rainbow. “Just some water, please. Can’t drink while on-call for storms.” “Very well, I’ll be back with your drinks and to take your orders.” He dipped his head before retreating. Once he was gone, Rainbow looked back to Rarity. “Hang on, you are jealous of me?” She asked. “Well, a little bit. Specifically about how little effort you have to put into your appearance and still pull your look off. Low-maintenance just suits you, whereas I have to put a lot of time into my own looks.” Rainbow blinked, mulling over her words for a moment before answering. “Yeah, I guess I don’t really put effort into styling my mane or makeup or anything. I mean, I still like how I look and I’m proud of that, but I wouldn’t call it low-effort. I spend a lot of time working out and practicing, and that keeps me in shape. Besides, remember I’ve seen you after we’ve fought some bad guys or been through the Everfree and you still pull that off.” She said with a smirk. “Hmm, I never really considered that your workouts might be your equivalent of my time spent styling,” Rarity replied with a thoughtful look. “And please, don’t remind me of our Everfree adventures. So much dirt.” She said with a shudder, causing Rainbow to laugh. “Fair enough, forget I mentioned it.” She grinned at Rarity, who smiled back. “Thank you, and thank you for putting my mind at ease. I suppose it’s a little foalish to worry about.” “Nah, I get it. You put a lot of effort into how you look and you thought somepony else was able to pull off a good look with no effort. I’d feel the same way if I met an athlete who could keep up with me and never seemed to put any effort into working out.” Rainbow gave Rarity an encouraging smile. “Regardless, thank you. Now, on a much more relevant note, I’m sure you guessed by the name that this is a Roaman restaurant, and I can highly recommend the roast vegetable lasagna....” During the meal Rainbow Dash had been glancing out of the window, keeping an eye on the sky as it darkened and the wind picked up more and more. Eventually, inevitably, the weather team’s storm siren sounded. “Sorry Rares, I-” She was cut off by Rarity raising a hoof. “No need,” she smiled warmly. “When duty calls, correct?” Rainbow grinned, before running out, nodding to another pegasus who was also running, quickly discarding their waiter’s uniform and taking to the air. Dash looked towards the Everfree, grimacing at the sight of the stormfront rolling towards Ponyville. Lightning crackled between the clouds and the entire storm was slowly spinning. “Damn, a supercell...” Dash climbed higher and higher, joining the crowd of pegasi forming above the town. Thunderlane, along with other full members of the weather team, was shouting instructions. “Alright everypony, listen up ‘cause this is serious! The storm’s become a supercell, so it is really important we do this right! Weather team volunteers, you’ll be operating in groups under a full member of the team. Your job will be to break up the flanking line and move clouds away from the supercell once the main teams have moved them to a safe location. There will be two main teams. The first team will tackle the rear flank downdraft, the second will try and break up the wall cloud. It looks like the storm’s got a rear shearing anvil, so be really careful about updrafts, and as always for these storms watch out for forming tornadoes. I know we just recently made the tornado to resupply Cloudsdale, but that was under controlled conditions, don’t think that means you can handle flying in a rogue one! Dash, you’re our strongest flier, you’re in charge of the wall cloud team.” Dash saluted with a hoof, rounding up some other members of the weather team and racing off towards the storm. As the team flew under the shelf of the storm, they were soon pelted with heavy rain. Rainbow squinted, flinching as raindrops hit her face but powered on through, mindful of the strong winds closer to the heart of the storm. “Let’s hit it from the north!” She shouted to her team over the sound of the storm, a series of yelled affirmations reaching her ears as the team banked around to hit the main bulk of clouds from a better angle. “I’ll hit it in the centre, the rest of you break up the fringes, and be careful of that updraft!” Waiting to hear her team acknowledge her orders, she ducked her head and hurtled forwards, the team forming up behind her. As they hit the clouds, she twisted her body into a spiraling roll, breaking through the clouds and dragging a large chunk in her wake and away from the storm, her team doing the same to the outer edges of the wall cloud.  They repeated their passes two more times, each pass reducing the size of the cloud wall, before the first inklings of disaster appeared. The team formed up for another pass, hurtling once more into the heart of the storm before Dash felt a prickling through fur. All pegasi know the feeling of static electricity, especially those working with storm clouds, and what a build-up in a storm meant. “Static, scatter!” She bellowed out, immediately angling into a dive as her team scattered, creating as much distance between themselves as possible while Dash tucked her wings in, dropping like a stone and trying to get close enough to the trees for the lighting to discharge into them instead. Before she could, however, the clouds discharged in a deafening boom, a bolt striking Rainbow Dash. She screamed through the thunderclap, her body convulsing as she plummeted through the air, forcing herself to keep her eyes open as she fell. She unfurled her wings as best she could, trying to control her descent, but to no avail. Her muscles were twitching too much thanks to the shock for her to control. She grit her teeth, looking ahead to see her trajectory would take her into the Everfree. Oh this is going to suck, was her last thought before she hit the canopy, crashing through and losing consciousness as her forehead struck a branch, knocking her out cold.