//------------------------------// // 2 - Star Dancer // Story: The Conversion Bureau: The Last Week // by Cloudhammer //------------------------------// February 22nd, 2053 Five Days Before Rejection Star Dancer felt his wings burning as he steadily flew upward, the rain sheeting around him. Finally he broke through the stormclouds and into the sunlight. Shaking his head, he opened his eyes to get his bearings and just stared. The hurricane spun serenely below, only the flickers of lightning visible in the funnel giving away how violent it was. “What’s the call, Star?” Thunderdrift shouted as he led the others up “Storm’s not gonna give us much more of a window. Freddy’s crew fired their flare on our way up, so we’re past the ten mile mark.” Star thought frantically, muttering to himself as he watched the clouds spin. “Alright… need to control the rotation, and direction… but this hard a spin….” He whirled about to face Thunder. “If the rotation was slower, could you lead a control team and get this thing clear of the islands?” “Yeah, but I don’t think it’s going to slack off as it hits shallower water…” Thunder’s eyes widened as he realized what Star meant. “Star, that’s insane-” “We’re out of time, Thunder! That’s the only way we’re going to break this thing open. I want you to take the others and get in position. I’ll make the opening,” he shouted, turning to get into position. “Then you’re not going in solo,” Thunder retorted as he turned to the pegasi behind him. “Cloud, Blitz, Greg, Sara, and Ice. I want you to follow Star in, stick to his tail.” “But-” Star fell silent as Thunder snorted. “No buts. You know damn well charging into a storm like this alone is suicide, and you won’t make a dent. Now, you’re taking these five with you, and use the corkscrew formation. That should at least give you a shot of staying together.” Star nodded. Once Thunder made up his mind, it wasn’t worth trying to change it. “Okay. Just be careful, okay?” Thunder snorted again. “Please, we’ll be back before you are. Just bring your bits, you’ll be buying the drinks.” “Fine, fine. But only if you’re back first.” Star turned to his five ‘volunteers’ as Thunder gathered the rest of the pegasi and dove through the clouds. “Okay everypony, gonna make this short. You all know what’s ahead of this storm. We’ve kept Hawaii clear of wild weather so far, and we’re not going to let anything change that. Not even a hurricane. Just stay close, keep the formation, and we’ll be fine.” He sized up the storm again. “Our entry point’s going to be there, at a fifty degree angle. Remember, don’t force it, just ride the wind I spin back to you.” He took a deep breath. “Everypony ready?” “Sir, yes sir!” the others shouted. “Good, glad to know someone around here is,” Star muttered half-seriously as he turned about. He heard the others taking up positions behind him as his wings tensed. He felt his heart racing, even as everything else seemed to slow down. “Okay, on my mark! Three! Two! One! Ma-!” Star screamed, hooves flailing at the suffocating stuff surrounding him. A moment later, he realized that they were sheets and stopped, though he felt his lungs hiking in his chest. “Doctor, he’s awake!” a voice called from the doorway. He blinked and saw an earth pony stallion looking down the hallway. A second later, the clatter of hooves on tile rang out and a unicorn stallion entered the room. “Good morning, Star,” he said as he levitated a clipboard from the bed. “My name’s Deft Touch, and I’ve been taking care of you the past few days. I admit, we were starting to think you planned to sleep all week.” “Wh-” Star coughed, his throat aching, “Where am I?” “You’re at the Straub hospital, Star. We’ve been taking care of you since the storm.” He consulted the chart. “Can you tell me anything about what happened?” Star squirmed to sit more upright, eyes closing as he thought. “Well, I led the corkscrew in, the rain was like a wall as we punched through-” his lungs started to hurt again, wings quivering. “I need you to breathe, Star. Nice and easy, can you do that for me?” Deft asked, his magic wrapping around Star’s chest, helping his breathing slow. “There we go. If this is too much for you, we can take a break. You did get a nasty bump on the head, and those aren’t something we take lightly.” “What… what hit me? There wasn’t anything else up there…” Star trailed off, pupils shrinking. “Oh no… how is everypony else? Did anypony get hurt?” Deft shifted uncomfortably. “I shouldn’t say…” “Please, you have to tell me!” Star half-shouted, breaking into another round of coughing as he sat up all the way. He wavered a little and Deft’s magic caught him, carefully easing him back against the pillows. “Please, stay calm, there’s time to talk about that later. We need to make sure you don’t have any lasting symptoms from the concussion-” Deft repeated urgently. “There were six, Star,” Thunderdrift interrupted as he hobbled into the doorway. His wings were completely bandaged, and a splint was attached to his foreleg. “It was Ice Kicker who whacked your noggin. “ He chuckled with a slight wheeze. “With her forehead, no less.” “Then… who were the… the six?” Star asked quietly. Thunder’s expression fell. “The rest of your team, and two from mine. They thought they could handle the crosswind and deviated from the path. By the time I realized it, was too late. As for your crew, a patch of wild lightning sprouted up right ahead of you.” His voice grew rough. “Least it was quick.” Deft half-closed his eyes as he swept his magic over Star. “I’m going to go check on some other patients. The nurse will be by with some food for you later, then we’ll see how you feel, alright?” He trotted out of the room, gently closing the door behind him. Star slumped, turning to look out the window. “This is all my fault, Thunder. Ever since the rift I’ve been jumping into things without thinking. I should have thought our formation through better, should have had a plan in place-” Thunder slammed a hoof against the side of the bed, cutting Star off. “If I had a wing that weren’t broke I’d be breaking it over your head, you know that? Look, I’d have loved to see those ponies come home safe, but fact is sometimes you can’t know how it’s gonna play it. You got stuck with the short end, and made your call. It wasn’t a pretty call, and maybe it wasn’t the best. But if we’d waited any more, then the hurricane would have made landfall. And we’d be burying a hell of a lot more than six by now.” Scowling, he jabbed a hoof at Star. “Now I’ve been workin’ with you for six years. You’ve always done right by your crews, and now more than ever they’re gonna need their chief to lead them forward. So don’t go all ‘woe is me’ now, alright?” Star stared back, eyes hollow as he shuddered. Lowering his gaze to the sheets, he felt the tears coming on as he remembered all of the times he’d spent leading and having fun with ponies he’d never see again, who’d put their trust in him to keep them safe. Finally, he took a ragged breath and looked back to Thunder, nodding once. “Good lad. Now, take it easy. There’s one last thing we got to do,” Thunder said, somber as he turned to leave. He paused at the door and his ear flicked. “Oh, and don’t eat the green stuff they call jello. Trust me.” ***** Star flexed his hooves, extending his senses through the cloudstand as he firmed it up a bit more. He glanced to the left, where the six caskets rested on their enchanted stands. The turnout was impressive, clouds dragged in from across the island to give the pegasi seats. They’d even brought in one of the bigger airships to allow those without wings a chance to attend. Star sighed, closing his eyes as the breeze started to pick up. “I don’t know what to tell them, Thunder,” he whispered. “So tell em straight,” Thunder replied. “Best way to tell it, far as I see it.” He nudged him, angling his head toward the horizon. “Sun’s almost on the horizon, let’s get this thing going.” Star nodded and took a few steps forward, clearing his throat. He took one more look across the audience; his mom and dad, Princess Celestia with her old eyes, several Canterlot nobles and ambassadors all meeting his eyes. But his gaze lingered longest on his weather team, many of them still bandaged. “I wanted to thank you all for coming. This… really means a lot to us. You all know the responsibility weatherponies have, and the long hours it brings, especially in a wild weather zone.” He could see many of the ponies nodding, and took a deep breath. “The tough part of a job like ours is that so many ponies think of it as simply pushing clouds around. Not to say a lot of the time the job isn’t exactly that, but anypony who’s had to wrangle a thundercloud knows the real risk.” “It takes dedication to do this job, and the ponies who volunteer for this are some of the strongest ponies I know. The hurricane last week would have been enough to make anypony with sense run, but not one of our teams faltered. Not one of them took a step back, and we got the job done.” He felt his eyes burning, but forced through it. There was one last thing to do first. “I know many of you here are newfoals, and there’s things about your heritage as pegasi that you’re still learning. Today, we honor those who fell against the weather through what is called a sky funeral.” He nodded to Thunderdrift, who came forward with a box on his back. “The sky funeral is something that’s been carried down from Old Pegasopolis, where the pegasi of the time often never set hoof on the ground.” Thunderdrift opened the box as Star continued. “Tradition called for a single pinion to be taken from each of the fallen, to be sent on the wind to the Summerlands.” He turned and helped Thunder take out the six feathers. “I’d like for any of the Hawaiian Weather Team able to fly to come forward. We’ll provide the last wind to guide them home.” Thunder took hold of the feathers as Star trotted forward, taking a position at the edge of the cloud. The sixty-two members of the team with working wings took off, moving into an impromptu formation behind him. He felt their reassurance behind him, and raised a hoof in signal. As one, the rest of the team began to beat their wings in unison as they coaxed the wind into motion. It swirled and tugged at the feathers in Thunder’s grip before yanking them free, spiraling them up and out toward the setting sun. “Goodbye, those taken by the storm. May you ease the weather for those of us who come after, now and for all time hence,” Star whispered, finally letting his tears fall.