"Hay, wait-!"
Sky Stinger ignored the shouts of Stormwatch office staff as he burst in to grab a radio earpiece. "I'll bring it back!" he assured them, though he doubted that would really assure them much.
Flying into the night, he fit the earpiece in under his new goggle straps and cycled to a few known channels before he found one with weather chatter - and he even recognized a few of the voices from flight school. They spoke calmly, but with an urgency that fit the situation.
He waited for a moment of dead air before saying, "Private Sky Stinger, reporting for duty."
A torrent of questions replied - mostly variants of "who is that?", some ruder than others. There was more chatter, but the dry, commanding voice of Lieutenant Dawntrail - his old flight commander - cut through it. "Good to have you, private. We need all the help we can get. Connect to subchannel Manehattan for storm work."
He switched to the subchannel. "Sky Stinger connecting." A few voices on the other side recognized him, but mostly there was a focus on the storm. He asked, "Has anypony heard from Vapor Trail?"
Dawntrail told him, "She's close to the storm. Report, Vapor…"
The line was quiet.
"Private Vapor Trail. Report."
Sky Stinger kept his eyes forward, towards the storm, and tried to ignore the growing pit in his stomach.
The pillar of cloud and lightning turned in her periphery, no matter where she looked. She was assaulted from every angle by gusts and buffeting winds. Sometimes there was a lightning strike in the distance that, for the instant before the thunder deafened her, made it seem like the crack of dawn beyond the storm. The next one really might have been - for all she knew, she'd been out here all night.
She tried the radio again, but even if she could get a connection, she wasn't oriented, and even if she was oriented, she didn't think she would make sense. Her breath was stuttering, her lips cold and stiff, her wings burning into numbness.
There was, on the other hoof, a pleasant feeling in her. A dull warmth in her core. She knew if she just held on a little longer, pushed herself a little harder, it would all be over. She could lie down and relax wherever she landed.
The warmth grew overbearing the more she thought about it. It turned to a boiling heat. She needed to relax, to sleep, to give up - and to get out of this stifling flight suit and cool off.
If only, with hooves numb from heat, she could work the zipper.
There were more pegasi, and even some griffon freelancers, connecting to the channel for storm work. He doubted many of them had connected by stealing an earpiece, though. With so many hooves - and claws - and the expert command of Lieutenant Dawntrail, the storm was getting under control. Cloudsdale was no longer in danger, and whole regions of sky were being cleared or wrangled according to how it might direct the storm.
But no word from Vapor Trail.
An increasing contingent of ponies were scanning the central pillar, listening for weak radio signals, and, distressingly, searching the landscape below. He was glad to be among the first group, paired with a griffon mare named Gerla.
They were flying danger-close, with Gerla taking the lead as a spotter. It had been - Celestia, he couldn't tell how long he'd been out there searching. Long enough that that was, in itself, a cause for worry.
"Stinger," she called over the radio, "check below to your three o' clock. Base of the pillar."
He checked. The bottom of the storm had become a cyclone, drawing long strings of cloud into it. Though it was lit up fairly well by internal lightning, he couldn't discern anything of note.
But she could have been down there.
"Let's go," he said. If anypony asked, he'd say he trusted Gerla's eyesight more than his own.
They rolled into a descent to approach the spot she'd pointed out, but nothing resolved as they got closer.
Sky Stinger asked, "You're sure you saw something down there?" Just from the sound of the wind here, he could hardly hear his own voice.
"Swirling in the pillar, yes."
"A pony?"
Gerla looked back at him and shook her head. "Not sure. But it didn't look like a cloud."
Sky Stinger looked down at the cyclone. It was so close, or so violent, that he could feel the roiling of the currents within. Any creature who flew down there would quickly find their powers of flight working against them.
But she could have been down there.
Without saying a word, he dove in with the current, tucking his wings behind his back for speed. Gerla might have said something, might have reached to grab him, but he didn't notice or care. He was going in.
As well as he could, he aimed for a slingshot approach - to whip around the core of the cyclone and shoot back out the way he came. He'd seen it done in tornadoes, but nothing this large, so he tried his best.
There was no hard transition between open sky and raging mist. It just became darker and louder until he was blind and deaf. As he opened his wings to catch the current for the turnaround, he felt the acceleration pulling his blood into his hooves.
He tried shouting -
"Vapor Trail," came a whisper on the wind. Was that…?
- but the sound was sucked out of his lungs. No luck. As the air started to clear and he found himself thrown back out of the cyclone, it seemed a miracle that he could see Gerla at all. She'd gotten too close.
She yelled, "Idiot!" as he shot past her.
He had no intention of staying to chat, so he just maintained speed to dive back in. Orders came through his earpiece, so he turned it off. No distractions.
In for a second time. Blind and deaf-
"Vapour Trail!"
No, somepony was definitely calling her name. She shouted back without words. "Haaah!"
- and he was thrown back out. This time he spun as he exited, and found he couldn't orient himself. Gerla was nowhere to be seen. Could he just not see her from where he was, or had she left to get help?
It didn't matter. He'd heard something in there. So he went back in.
This time, he didn't feel the blood rushing into his hooves, didn't feel the building energy for a slingshot. The cyclone had him for good. Still he called out: "Vapour Trail! I'm here!"
He kept calling out until his voice was raw, until his wings threatened to give up, until he felt the chill of cold in his hooves. Even until he began to worry - Is she not here? Did I screw up?
Sky Stinger reached out ahead of him, feeling into the black mist. He wasn't sure why. Something about the sound or the texture of the mists changed. He had a feeling he was about to be kicked in the head. Maybe a tree branch or a piece of rubble was careening out of the dark. So he reached out, to block it, or catch it before it arrived, and he found a hoof.
He pulled Vapor Trail to him, caught her in a bear hug, and put all the energy he could muster into one flap sending them in one easy direction - down.
They plummeted through the storm and into open air, and after a moment of gliding, landed softly in a white field of snow.
She could feel herself being pulled onto somepony's back.
"S-Sting?"
She could feel him speak, more than hear him. "Yeah, Vape?"
"I sh-should ha-a-ave brought th-th-the-"
"Thermos."
She nodded. "Yeah…"
He laughed.
She didn't know what was so funny, but she laughed, too.