For a moment they froze and enjoyed the lost marvel of fresh rain coursing across their faces. It was a relief, a relief that expired when they noticed the trickle of water running around their hooves was growing faster and thicker by the second.
“Three hundred years, he said. Lucky us,” Spray muttered. Velvet was pinning her hat to her head while he fumbled to get his sketchbook away before it was ruined.
The rain wasn’t slowing down. Quite the opposite, it was picking up speed, turning from drizzle to shower. Instinct, training and experience all kicked at once for Bright Star. A gut feeling clicked into action.
“Everypony to higher ground!” he yelled. “Now!”
Everypony around him looked confused. This wasn’t the time to get curious. Really not in the mood for a geography lesson.
“We’re in a flood plain! The water is going to be on top of us, fast!”
Velvet’s face froze in an expression of sudden fear; Spray looked confused. Bright Star wanted to scream. Were they being foolish? Now was not the time to get cute. Could they not see the water rather pointedly not being absorbed by the rock?
“That bad?” Pinion squeaked.
“Very much yes.” Bright Star’s glance backwards convinced Pinion he knew what he was talking about. “It’s not pretty.”
His first posting had been somewhere near Appleoosa. The inexperienced ponies trying their hoof at farming hadn’t been careful with the weather they were handling, and completely disregarded the uniqueness of their terrain. A wall of water had slammed into a small farm, wiping out their families in the process. It had been unpleasant to see.
“Drop your bags! We need to move!”
Reluctantly, the ponies shrugged off their saddlebags. Five minutes ago it would have been a relief to ditch them. Now the concern was with parting with the water and other sundries required for survival in the desert. Mace and Pinion, formerly bringing up the rear, now turned and the whole line followed them.
“Move!”
The ponies scrambled back the way they came, made difficult now that the trickle of water was quickly becoming a stream. A stream that was growing steadily into a torrent. The water, black with sand, was almost knee high now. Bright Star cursed; they weren’t going to make it all the way back up. They needed to improvise, fast.
There: it was high enough to be above the floor to be useful. It didn’t look the last time that the water flowed through that it reached that high. It would have to do.
“That ledge! Get on it, now!”
Mace leapt and grabbed holding, pulling Pinion up. They turned their attention to the civilians. Spray darted up, ready with a hoof to pull the other ponies up.
“Quickly!” Bright Star called. “Any second now...”
At that moment they heard a tremendous roar. All heads turned to the bend up ahead, where a wall of filthy brown water rounded the corner. It struck two of the ponies head on; they were gone before they could make a sound. Bright Star leapt and managed to find a loose purchase on the rock. The water struck him hard, but did not dislodge him.
Velvet was on him almost instantly. Her hooves couldn’t reach him so she tried to use her magic to levitate him. It was a tremendous fight against the strong current. For a moment Bright Star budged closer, inch by inch. Slow going, but he found he could wriggle against the rock. It hurt, the abrasive surface digging into his fur and his skin, but it was doable.
For a moment it looked like she was winning. Bright Star fought the current and the slippery rock, coming to the point where Velvet and his hooves could meet. One more reach forwards, and he could make it. If she only had the proper vantage point she could save him. She struggled to muster all the magic she could.
For one brief moment, it looked like he was going to survive. One brief, cruel minute.
Suddenly the rock shifted by half a foot. It was a sudden jolt, knocking Bright Star back almost all the way he had climbed up. Velvet would have tumbled forwards if Spray hadn’t grabbed her at the last moment. Her concentration lost, her magic field faded and the current grabbed hold of Bright Star. He managed to scrape against the rock long enough to lock himself in place temporarily, but the pressure of the water was greater than what strength remained in his body.
Velvet grabbed him again with her magic. Starting from scratch, it would take a lot more energy to haul him back up. Worst, underneath his hooves Spray could feel the rock he was standing on beginning to shift. The rock had been hanging several inches off of the ledge, and now was becoming loose. He could not bring himself to speak aloud the dark thoughts he was having.
This was not going to end well. The only question in his mind was whether they were going to join the ponies who had already died. Could Velvet realize it before she doomed herself?
“Let me go!” Bright Star called. The look of a guard fled his eyes as he realized what he had asked of them. Slowly he began to slide off of the slippery rock. By this point it was too wet to find a good grab. Velvet leaned forwards, hoping with one last thrust of effort she could land him.
“Hang on!” she called. “We’re almost there.”
Eagerly she thrust herself forwards, the rock beginning to roll with the added strain.
“Watch it!” Spray yelled. He wrapped his forelegs around Velvet’s middle. She made one last stretch to reach Bright Star, who was hit with a sudden surge of water. Bright Star’s words were drowned out by the water shoving him off of the rock and into the current.
In a second he had disappeared. There one minute. Gone now.
Velvet froze in horror. This hadn’t been what she wanted at all. Was it her fault, had her magic simply not been enough or had she not wanted to save him badly enough? Had she failed as a pony?
“I...” she said, then closed her mouth. Anything more she said would feel inappropriate.
“Not your fault,” Spray said. “Come on.”
He gently began to pull her back. Slowly sense returned to her. She began to push backwards with her hooves, resigned to today’s unpleasant outcome.
There was another sudden shift. Spray’s grip was quick and fast enough to keep Velvet from sliding back into the fray.
“Whoa!” Velvet cried.
“I’ve got you,” Spray said. The rock unpleasantly teetered for a second, but remained in place. If it could just stay stable another minute, they’d be safe. The rock was beginning to wiggle like a loose tooth, and it wouldn’t take much to knock it out of place.
Wait...aren’t there two other ponies with us?
“Help...” Spray began, noticing Mace and Pinion were locked in place. If it couldn’t support two ponies, would it support them too? Would it be worth it? A difficult logic to fault.
Beneath them the rock cracked and slid into the water. With a sudden lurch it tobogganed into the fray. Velvet yelped. The water roared up to greet them.
#
Wet weather gear had gone from collecting dust in a forgotten corner of the base’s stores into the most valuable commodity the fort had. Naturally, there was not enough to go around, and became essential to wear them even indoors. The heat strained wood, long deprived of moisture, were bloated and leaked water everywhere like an over soaked sponge.
The parade ground was a mess, while the fort’s ponies acted disciplined and professional, inside the general feeling was that the end of the world had come. There were not gutters or drains; rain just sloughed off the roofs of the buildings. Somepony frantically tried to lower the flag, flapping madly in the wind, tending to the insult to his nation’s pride.
The majority had assembled before the fort arsenal. Their officers were passing out weapons. With great purpose the throng grabbed their spears, as it was a task, and therefore purposeful, and stopped the yelling besides. At some point after it ended they would have to move and move fast. Where to had not yet been established. It gave some order and the ghost of a sense of control over the chaos.
Thunder Kicker was moving with a purpose.
An hour ago the storm moved into the area around Fort Lancer. At first the few drops of rain were a curiosity, especially for ponies raised where weather was meticulously maintained. Then the rain fell thicker and harder, and immediately thoughts had turned to the beam. It took a few minutes to remember there were ponies patrolling along the length of the beam.
A pony had gone to throw out a bucket of water when Thunder stormed into the briefing room. Olive was hunched over a map. A stream of water was falling into a bucket on the tabletop. Olive was concentrating on the beam. He turned to a pony standing next to him. “Right, minute this stops I want the beam manned...”
He noticed Thunder standing next to him. Olive nodded at the subordinate pony, who scurried off.
“Unexpected gust at sea knocked a storm inland,” he explained without looking up. The revised weather chart for their area was on the table. According to the time stamps it arrived two hours late.
“Unacceptable,” Thunder said. “Where was the weather squad handling that?”
“Came late. Preoccupied.”
“With what?”
“Dust storms along the train track: we needed to keep that under wraps to ensure routine train service.”
Thunder could have laughed. All the stupid crap to worry about, and Olive chose that as being more important? Seven million bits, and now the security of the country, was eroding quickly.
“Why weren’t they watch the ocean pass?”
“Rogue gusts happen. This isn’t Cloudsdale. We don’t always get a lot of lead time as to what the weather is going to do around here. We certainly don’t control it.”
Thunder shook his head. “Just stupid.”
“San Paolomino does what the San Paolomino does. We play by it’s rules, not Equestria’s.”
Whatever happened to not getting surprised by anything anymore? Getting mad didn’t fix the problem: fixing the problem fixed the problem. Thunder turned his attention to the map. Judging by how hard it was raining, the beam was now their greatest concern.
“What’s the status with the beam?”
Olive pointed at the winding blue ribbon on the map. “Preliminary reports suggest that the Dusty river has burst it’s banks a mile in both directions. We can expect at least a three mile gap in the beam.”
Then he highlighted a six mile stretch of the lake. “This region is the most problematic,” Olive explained. “It was built over a dry lakebed.”
“That’s a third of the beam.” Thunder’s jaw almost dropped.
“We can safely assume that the lakebed has a minimum concentration of at least five feet. In all likelihood, more.”
Heading off any comment Thunder could make, words strangled in the pony’s throat, Olive highlighted a nearby section on the map. A number of brown and tan streaks tangled together like a plate of spaghetti.
“And it’s riddled with dry riverbeds and smaller creeks that have bulged since the rain started. Where it isn’t washed away, we can safely assume the structural integrity is heavily compromised.”
Great, Thunder thought. Only standing between us and them is a sixty foot tall mud pie. Let’s get it over with and put out the welcome matt right now.
Olive had been arranging green triangles at the weakest places at the map. Intelligence estimates for the numbers of Silver nation ponies on the other side of the beam. He was beginning to strategize as to where to deploy the fort’s ponies. Three questions for when help arrived: how many, how fast, and what was taking so long?
“All these regions are, of course, impassable, but once the rain stops...” Thunder said.
Olive met his eyes. “I’ve sent a courier out. We can expect Guard Captain Armour and reinforcements as soon as this lets up. All weather pegasus ponies are being directed to that end.”
At least you did something right. Thunder did not know how the public would react to the Dusty river now being in play again. The Silver nation was supposed to be loud and obnoxious, not a threat.
“What about our patrols?”
“Unknown,” Olive said. “None have reported back yet. I’ve sent one party out to check on them and the integrity of the beam. They should be back soon.”
Thunder nodded. Of course, the question of Spray’s welfare was at the forefront of his mind. Fixing the problem would bring him back, not anger or panic. Work on fixing the problem solved the problem. Problems were multiplying like rabbits right now.
“Sir, the patrol has returned...” a pony called from the door.
“Yes. Now. Do it.”
The pegasus ponies walked in, rain drenching their uniforms and fur. The lead pony snapped to attention with a salute. Olive returned it; this was a situation where such minor details were more nuisance than aid.
“Sir,” the pegasus said, “we were following the riverbed as ordered, which now is swollen with water.”
Olive nodded. “And? What’s the damage?”
The pegasus sighed. “The beam is crumbling and the top perimeter fence has already begun to lose its footing. The inner fence is swamped and useless. In short, it’s falling apart.”
You didn’t need to go in this weather to tell me that! Thunder mused.
“Silver scouts have already begun to breach the area,” the second scout pony added. “We couldn’t stay long to make a prolonged search.”
“How many?’ Olive asked.
“Six. Armed with crossbows, likely making a foraging raid.”
That was quick. Can’t say I’m surprised. We can expect a lot more Silver ponies soon, Thunder thought. They’ve never hesitated to press their advantage. Even if they lose a lot of ponies, they’ll still storm the beam.
“And our patrols?” Thunder asked. “Did you find them?”
Just by looking at the pony Thunder could tell the news wasn’t good.
“We found a body swept downriver. It was a patrol pony. No other sign of the others.”
Thunder stiffened. Well, thin as it is, there’s still hope. “What about the civilian embeds?”
“All we found was this.”
The pony produced a purple and white hat, rumpled and soggy..