//------------------------------// // The Calm Before the Storm // Story: Discordant Melody // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// 3. The Calm Before the Storm There was a flash of light near the edge of Ponyville, and seven young ponies appeared. Snap shook his head with a smile. "Nice use of Chaos Control, Stardust." Stardust Mail flushed. "I'm not as good at it as Dad is, I'll admit...I was aiming for Sugarcube Corner..." Maria nuzzled her brother. "You're getting better, brother. Last time we tried to warp to Sugarcube Corner, we wound up in Zecora's cottage." Cherry blanched. "We might have wound up in...the E-everfree Forest?" Aurora snorted gently. "That might have been fun." Gem shook himself off as he climbed out of the river. "I think I'd have preferred to fly, rather than land in water." Twistie giggled at Gem. "3p1c f4ll, n00b! Trololol!" Stardust chuckled nervously. "Come on, let's head into town, huh? We can show the new ponies around." The group made their way into Ponyville. Although several of the ponies obviously recognized Stardust Mail and Maria as royalty, none bowed or even addressed them as anything but their names. "They aren't very demonstrative..." Cherry mentioned in confusion. Stardust Mail shuddered. "Don't make a fuss. It took YEARS to break the locals of the habit of treating every royal visit as a national event, when we came here when we wanted to be normal." "The extended family prolly helped with that, kid!" a voice called from above. A young Earth Pony mare was standing on a nearby roof, grinning at the group of youngsters. She had a yellow coat, red mane and tail, and dark brown eyes. She was dressed in worker overalls and hard hat, and had a construction tool belt wrapped around her neck. "Ey, Snap!" she called out. "New friends?" She hopped easily down to the ground. Snap Lock smiled. "Hey, Aunt Bloom. I guess you could say they're new friends." "That's good!" Apple Bloom said happily. "You need to make good friends. Ah been worried about your lonerness." Cherry Blossom glanced up at her. "You're one of the Apple family? Shouldn't you be at Sweet Aple Acres, then? Doesn't the whole family work the family business?" Apple Bloom chuckled. "My talent took me elsewhere," she said, pulling her overalls aside to show her Cutie Mark: a crossed hammer and saw over a red cross. "Mah talent is carpentry. Anything to do with worked wood, ah'm good at...especially in an emergency. Prolly shoulda seen it back at the clubhouse, but it took that freak storm ten years back for me to see it. You remember that storm, right Snap?" Snap nodded. "An ocean storm somehow found its way inland. Nearly demolished the county." Maria nodded. "Uncle Shining had to shield Canterlot to keep everyone safe. Ocean weather's dangerous." Apple Bloom smiled. "Well, I was out here with mah sis and Snap here, sellin some apples. When the storm hit all of a sudden, everyone ran for shelter. Ah could see there was a lot of damage, but it seemed all right...until a bolt o' lightning struck the hospital. The rain extinguished the fire purty quick, but it still left a gaping hole in the roof." She chuckled. "I still don't know what came over me then, but I grabbed a nearby hammer, nails, and some wood and ran up to the roof to repair the hole...right in the middle of the storm!" Snap chuckled as they walked along with Apple Bloom. "Mom nearly had a heart attack when you left the shelter." Apple Bloom nodded. "The other emergency workers were trying to get everypony to safety, but the storm was too dangerous. I worked fast, fixin up every buildin that took damage. Eventually, Sugarcube Corner was the only buildin still safe for ponies, and everyone got evacuated there, though I kept working on fixin everythin I could. When the storm ended, I collapsed in exhaustion, but all the rescue workers were cheerin me...and it felt real good. That's when mah Cutie Mark appeared." She smiled happily. "Life's never been the same since. Ya know, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo got their Cutie Marks the same day...and they're supposed to be in town today!" She started to run off, with the young group chasing after her. They eventually reached a new structure in town, a karaoke club. Since Equestria had begun interdimensional commerce - contact with Mobius was just the beginning - various new businesses had sprung up in Ponyville as new ideas were imported. Karaoke was one of the more popular ones, as well as songs from other worlds. A sign was outside the club. "Performing today: The Majestic Bella Sucra, taking requests! Later, the Cutie Mark Crusaders Reunion Performance...and we'll get it right this time!" Apple Bloom couldn't help but chuckle at the second one. "When the three of us first tried to perform, we were doin the wrong roles. Scootaloo was singing, Ah was doin coreagraphy, and Sweetie Belle did the stage and costumes." She shuddered. "It didn't work well. Huh, looks like 'Bella Sucra' is performing right now. How about we take a look?" As they filed in, they noticed that nearly the entire audience was stallions of various ages. On the stage was a white unicorn with a pink and purple mane and green eyes, wearing a fancy black dress. She had on light make up, and her Cutie Mark was just visible under the end of the dress: a pink heart with a purple music note. She had her eyes closed as she stood next to the mic, swaying as she sang her heart out. The group had come in mid song. "People think it's intimidating When a girl is cool with her sexuality I'm a 180 to the stereotype Girls like staying home and being innocent. I pick all my skirts to be a little too sexy..." The group waited for the song to end - although Maria, Cherry, Twistie, and Aurora were very confused by the lyrics, Stardust was embarrassed, and Snap and Gem were amused. As the Prima Donna left the stage at the end of her song - amidst loud cheering - Gem called out to her, "Mom would have apoplexy if she'd heard you singing that, Aunt Sweetie!" Sweetie Belle grinned as she ran up to them. "Then it's a good thing my sister isn't here, isn't it?" She got Gem in a headlock and noogied him as they laughed together. Glancing at the group, she grinned at Apple Bloom. "Look Apple Bloom! It's our sisters and their friends in miniature!" As Apple Bloom laughed, Sweetie turned back. "Let me just get changed and I'll be right with you." She headed to her dressing room. When she came out to join them from the back, she had left any special outfits behind, just walking in her natural beauty. "That feels better. The gowns look nice, but they just aren't all that comfy. Course, Rarity didn't make them, so that's to be expected." As the others laughed, Cherry looked up at Sweetie Belle. "So how'd you get your Cutie Mark?" she asked, wilting when Gem and Snap gave her an exasperated look. "Now don't be mean, boys," Sweetie Belle said affectionately. "Did you hear Apple Bloom's story?" Cherry, Aurora, and Twistie nodded. "Well, I got my Cutie Mark in the same storm. I was at Sugarcube corner when it started, foalsitting for the Cakes. Pound and Pumpkin got really scared when the storm hit, so I calmed them down by singing to them. They calmed a little bit, but then they started demanding 'Pinkie songs'." Sweetie smiled at Twistie. "The twins really liked it when your Mom sat them. Anyway, the only songs I knew of Pinkie Pie's repetoire were 'Smile' and 'Giggle at the Ghosties'. Since they were scared of the storm, I sang 'Giggle at the Ghosties' first." Sweetie shook her head. "After a couple songs, more ponies had been evacuated into Sugarcube Corner, and Mrs. Cake said I should keep singing, since it was keeping everyone calm. So I just kept singing." Sweetie shook her head. "At first I was embarrased, since I'd never liked singing in front of crowds, but when I saw panic starting, I broke into song without thinking. After each song, people were calmer, happier, and someone would ask if I knew another song." Sweetie smiled broadly. "By the time the storm was over, I had my Cutie Mark. Although I always wondered what caused the storm." "Yeah," Aurora wondered. "Aren't Pegasi supposed to control the weather? How'd an ocean storm get as far as Ponyville? What gave it that much power?" There were shrugs all around, as none of them knew enough about weather systems to explain it. They continued to walk along for a while, chattering aimlessly, when a blue, yellow, and purple blur streaked overhead before resolving into a purple maned Wonderbolt. The Wonderbolt landed easily, pulling her hood back to reveal an orange coat and purple eyes. "Hey guys!" she said happily, tackling Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. "Scootaloo!" the two cried out together, tussling happily with her for a time. As they settled down, laughing, Aurora suddenly asked, "So how'd you get your Cutie Mark?" When everyone glanced at her, she said, "What? I wanted to get the question in before Cherry did. Sides, I want to know what it has to do with her being a Wonderbolt!" Scootaloo took a closer look at Aurora. "What's with the mini Rainbow Dash?" Aurora's eyes widened. "You know my Mom?" Scootaloo nodded. "Yeah. She's been my idol and role model since I was as small as you." Aurora smiled happily, blushing at the compliment to her mother. "So are you gonna answer my question?" Scootaloo nodded. "Alright. It was actually the same day as Sweetie and AB here." "Did you get it from the storm?" Cherry asked excitedly. "Not exactly. See, it happened like this..." Flashback... Scootaloo walked along the oceanside cliff, gazing out at the waters. They seemed tranquil, as she did, but she knew that, like her own heart, there was turbulance just beneath the surface. Since Rainbow Dash had vanished with Sonic some five years back, Scootaloo had found herself without direction in life. Sure, she still wanted to find her Cutie Mark and figure out who she was...but she felt she no longer had anyone to look up too. The sound of a mother and son disturbed her musings. "Pip, don't get so close to the edge! It doesn't look stable!" "No worries, Mum. It's quite jolly over here!" Looking up, Scootaloo saw Pip - the young colt she'd first met on Nightmare Night several years back - playing near the edge of the cliff. At first she smiled, but then she frowned. Pip's mother was right. The cliff edge was starting to give way. She began to run forward. "Pip! Watch out!" As Pip turned towards her, the cliff gave way beneath him and he fell over backwards. "WAAAAAHHH!!!" he screamed as he fell. Scootaloo knew his mother was screaming as well, but she didn't stop to think about that. Only one thought seared her mind. *What would Rainbow Dash do?* Knowing the answer, she raced to the cliff edge and leapt off, diving after Pip. She'd seen Rainbow Dash pull maneuvers like this dozens of times. She remembered exactly how she positioned her body to catch up to someone falling ahead of her. Matching her body to that, she caught up to Pip and grabbed him by the scruff in her teeth. "I've got you!" she told him. "But who's got you?" Pip called out in fear. Scootaloo realized then what she'd just done. She had dove off a cliff towards the ocean below after a falling colt...when she had never flown more than a couple feet off any flat surface - ground or clouds - and she didn't know how to swim. *What a time for first flight,* she thought to herself, prepping her wings. At the last possible moment, she snapped her wings open, turning her downward momentum into forward momentum, speeding across the surface of the water, the tips of her wings nearly touching the wave crests to either side of her. She knew she was in trouble now. If she tried to turn or flap her wings to gain altitude, her feathers would dip beneath the water, and she'd fall. As if that weren't bad enough, she was getting further from shore, and her speed wouldn't last forever. Eventually, she'd crash into the waves, and they both would drown. Then she saw hope. Some distance in front of her, a large ocean storm had formed. Pegasi didn't bother trying to control ocean weather: by the time it got close enough to land to reach, it had built up too much momentum. What caught her eye here, though, was that the storm included a massive waterspout. Remembering her physics lessons, she aimed for the waterspout, coming in with the angle of the winds. As the winds caught her, she angled herself to fly up with the air currents, letting them add to her speed. Her plan was to get enough speed and altitude to break free near the top while aiming towards shore. Unfortunately, her plan worked to well, as before she was half way up, she saw the mach cone forming in front of her. One time Tails had visited Equestria, he had explained how a Sonic Rainboom worked, and Celestia had confirmed his explanation. All ponies had latent magic, and a pegasus focused his or hers into flight, both for speed and to manipulate weather. When a pegasus breached the sound barrier, however, their magic started to gather to form a protective shell around them, reducing air resistance so they could survive at the higher speeds. Once the pegasus breached mach 5, the spell became fully formed, and reduced air friction to zero, allowing the pegasus' speed to instantly double. The completion of the spell was what created the rainbow colored shockwave, which was as much magic as sound or light. However, if a Pegasus began the spell and was unable to break Mach 5 - either through insufficient strength or magic - the spell rebounded on the pegasus, causing a total reversal of acceleration. This is what caused the visible mach cone to seem to become a wall that launched a pegasus backwards across the sky. This was the trap Scootaloo was in now. Either she would fail to create a Sonic Rainboom, and be rebounded into the waterspout where both she and Pip would be torn apart...or she would succeed, and be trying to escape a magically distorted ocean storm at greater than Mach 10, when miniature waterspouts were already forming around her and lightning flashed at least once every ten seconds. *Do or die,* Scootaloo thought to herself as she put all her strength into her flight, angling closer to the waterspout for greater acceleration. *Very do or die.* She saw the mach cone narrowing as sparks formed on its edge...and then came the boom. The rainboom sliced through the storm as Scootaloo rocketed towards shore. The entire storm shuddered and roiled as lightning now flashed nearly three times a second and more waterspouts sprang up all around her. She had to keep half her attention on maintaning the rainboom and the other half on holding onto Pip. THis left her dodging lightning and waterspouts by instinct alone. Later, she would not remember how she managed to make it out of the storm. However, she came upon the shore some distance ahead of the storm, which was riding her wake towards land. She knew she had to land soon. She suddenly saw lights shoot up from a cove at the water's edge. She recognized the signal: a Wonderbolt Rescue Operations signal which meant "Safe Landing." Diving for the cove, she saw Spitfire - in uniform - guiding her in. Unfortunately, Scootaloo's wings were so waterlogged by now that she knew the moment she tried to backwing she'd crash. So she did the only thing she could. The instant she flared her wings, she dropped Pip. Spitfire reacted quickly, flying up to catch Pip and guide him into safe landing. Scootaloo went spinning, managed to catch a tree branch in her teeth, spin around it a few times before it snapped off, kick off the cliff face, and land safely on all fours. Spitfire then guided all three of them into a sheltered area of the cove, where the main part of the cliff would blunt the storm's fury, since ages of weather weakening spells were laid into the structure of the cliff itself. Once they stopped moving, Pip looked up, breathless. "That was jolly! Can we go again?" Scootaloo ran for some nearby bushes. After a few moments, she mumbled, "Aw man. I liked lunch..." Spitfire came up to her side. "Don't be too hard on yourself, kid. I saw the whole thing, and I nearly lost my lunch seeing the stunts you were pulling to get out of that storm. I've never seen someone dodge lightning that close...especially not at those speeds. You must have practiced for years to have enough confidence to attempt that rescue, or even half those stunts. First storm flight?" Scootaloo shook her head. "First flight." Spitfire stared at her, her eyes wide. "F-first...flight?" Scootaloo nodded. Spitfire fainted. End of Flashback... Scootaloo smiled down at the young ponies as she pulled aside part of her Wonderbolt outfit to reveal her Cutie Mark. "My Cutie Mark had appeared during the flight while I dodged lightning and waterspouts. Not sure what it is, but my talent is apparently stunts, midair or otherwise. With that kind of talent, it wasn't long before I got recruited by the Wonderbolts." Her Cutie Mark was a ramp, colored red and orange. Aurora gasped. "That's a stunt ramp! I've seen a lot of those back home. Mom and Dad used them to do mid air tricks to build up energy for their boost technique!" Scootaloo laughed. "Well, that fits!" Sweetie Belle grabbed Scootaloo. "Come on! We've got a reunion concert to do, and we need to practice!" As Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom dragged her off, laughing, Scootaloo spoke up, "You two know I'm still tone deaf, right?" As the young ponies reached Sugar Cube Corner, Cherry was walking backwards as she spoke excitedly. "Weren't those stories wonderful? I haven't gotten my Cutie Mark yet, so I found it all really fascinating-" The door to Sugar Cube Corner opened, and she bumped into the one exiting, a large, angry looking griffin. "Oh, exc-" "Hey!" the griffin shouted. "I'm walking here!" Cherry Blossom wilted. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't-" "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," the griffin mocked. "Why don't you just watch where you're going doofus?" Cherry Blossom was whimpering, while the others started to bristle. "B-b-b-but I-" The griffin roared in Cherry Blossom's face. Cherry Blossom's eyes went wide, and she fell on her butt and began to cry. The others started to get really angry...then saw something behind the griffin that made them become scared. "Hah!" the griffin laughed. "What a bunch of cry babies! Whatcha gonna do, go crying to Mommy?" "How dare you!" said an angry voice from behind the griffin. Standing there was Fluttershy...but not the Fluttershy Ponyville remembered. Garbed in her ceremonial white robe and a circlet of laurel leaves, her wings spread and mantled, she formed a surprisingly fearsome appearance. "HOW DARE YOU!" she demanded again. "Just because you're bigger, doesn't mean you get to be a bully!" She stalked forward, making the griffin back up. This wasn't Fluttershy having one of her flashes of assertiveness. She wore a mantle of power by right. She stood there as the queen of her world, and ponies all around felt her aura of authority and instinctively bowed. "You may have sharp claws and a loud voice...you may think you're tough...but no one, I mean NO ONE makes my daughter cry!" Her eyes were hard as diamonds, staring into the griffins eyes. "You got that?" The griffin visibly gulped. Cherry Blossom smiled and pointed at Fluttershy. "That's my mamma!" she said happily. Another nearby voice spoke up. "I see you haven't changed, Gilda." The griffin - Gilda - flinched back. "Uh, hey Dash. It's been a while, and-" "What are you doing back here? I thought Ponyville was 'too lame' for you?" Rainbow Dash did not look at all welcoming. "Yeah, about that...see, I think maybe we ended things badly, and I thought maybe we could patch things up-" "Well, you sure did a bang up job of that by ROARING AT MY DAUGHTER!" Gilda glanced over at Aurora, then to Rainbow Dash, then to Cherry Blossom, then to Fluttershy. "Uh..." She spread her wings, ready to take off. Fluttershy's wings shot up, blocking Gilda's escape. "I didn't hear an apology," she said quietly. Gilda gulped, and turned towards the young ponies. "Sorry," she mumbled, before racing off and taking wing. As Gilda left the area, Rainbow Dash grinned. "Wow, Fluttershy. Never knew you had that in you!" FLuttershy's eyes widened, and she slumped to the ground, wings over her face. "I can't believe I just did that!" she whimpered, her voice little more than a squeek. Cherry Blossom sighed. "That's my mamma," she said with resignation. Dash laughed. "Come on in you all. Twilight's got some time off, so we're throwing a reunion party! The others will be here soon!" They all followed Rainbow Dash into Sugar Cube Corner.