Hook: Sunny Rays deals with a rogue storm.
Cover art by volrathxp
Story #309
Title: Rogue Storm
Keyword: Stormy
Character: Sunny Rays
Chaos/Villain
You’re sitting in a pizza parlor, across the table from your friend, Sunny Rays. She’s a yellow pegasus with pink and purple hair, and you’ve been friends ever since she started working at the same company as you, months earlier. She’s energetic and fun to be around. She likes going out and doing things, which is a far cry from your other stick-in-the-mud coworkers who never want to hang out.
Sunny Rays had come here specifically to start a weather wrangling business, only to be disappointed to find out that international treaties forbid interfering with the weather. Weather work runs in her veins, as she’s the latest in a line of weather managers going back generations in her family. Her grandmother is still the Regional Weather Coordinator for the entire Seaddle-Tackoma-Vanhoover metropolitan area, a fact she’s quick to brag about. She desperately wants to be up there in the clouds.
Despite that, she’s never let it get her down. Earth has a lot to see and do, and she intends to experience as much of it as she can. She’s stated more than once her intentions to go home to Equestria, but not yet. Even without her saying it, you can tell why. She has unfinished business. She won’t be happy until she’s flown in a storm on Earth. Feral weather. It’s more than a burning desire, it’s a primal urge. Her call of the wild.
Your pizza is brought out. The two of you may be great friends, but you have vastly different ideas on what appropriate toppings are for pizza. You’ve agreed to disagree and settled for extra cheese, the one thing neither of you object to.
You trade stories while you eat. Sunny enjoys hearing your stories from Earth as much as you enjoy hearing her tales of Equestria.
Sunny Rays’ ears swivel as your cellphone beeps. She knows what that sound means – it’s a weather alert.
“What was that?” Sunny Rays studies the weather like some of your other coworkers analyze football players for their fantasy leagues. She knows, as you do, that no inclement weather has been forecast for today.
You read the alert to her, “The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for…” You skip ahead, letting her know that your county is included in the area. “Looks like its a line of rogue storms coming in off the ocean.”
She’s practically vibrating with excitement. “Just like back home. Those are always the most dangerous storms. Never know what you’re going to get.” She pounds a hoof on the table for emphasis, cracking a bit of Formica off the edge of the tabletop.
In the pegasus’ excitement, she’s forgotten something. “You left the top down.”
Sunny disappears outside, putting the convertible roof up on her Mustang. Like many ponies, she’s customized the ‘galloping pony’ emblem with her own colors. Mustangs are popular with ponies. So much so, that many ponies put Mustang emblems onto cars that aren’t Mustangs. The weirdest you’ve seen is a toss-up between a Mustang-badged AMC Gremlin and a galloping pony-adorned Volvo station wagon.
You can see her out the window. She’s looking up at the clouds. You know what she’s thinking. You take another bite of your pizza, then walk outside. “Sunny.” You put a hand on her withers.
She leans into your hand, butting against it. Her muscles are tensed, like a cat about to pounce. You give her ears a scratch, trying to calm her. “It’s coming. I can feel it.” She looks up at you. “I need to do this.”
“This isn’t Equestria. There are all kinds of hazards up there. Planes, drones, helicopters… You might not even see something coming until it’s too late.”
Her tail lashes back and forth as she fights with conflicting emotions. You know she’ll never be happy until she’s up there, feeling an Earth storm for herself.
[CHOICE]Do you let Sunny Rays fly into the storm or try to talk her out of it?
>It’s dangerous, but that’s what storm wranglers are supposed to do. Let her go be free. (chaos)
>It’s too dangerous. Talk her out of it. (villain)