//------------------------------//
// The Eye of the Storm 
// Story: Urohringr 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	"Nnnngh..."

"Oh!  Are you feeling alright?  Are you experiencing any pain?"

"It's... hard to say, Miss Bellesmith.  It's certainly... unique, is all."

"The runic plate is necessary in order to transfer information between the manasphere and your cerebral cortex.  Aside from actually... uhm... drilling into your skull... eheh... this is the best means we have to create a junction.  As you can imagine, it can't not be a tight fit..."

"And you're certain that this... this... uh... Optical and Sensory... erm..."

"Just call it 'O.A.S.I.S.' for short.  Heehee... and to be honest, Mr. Pilate, no, we don't know if it will work.  For the moment, all I'm making sure of is that it will not bring you or your nervous system any harm.  If it integrates—good.  We'll work from there.  For the time being, take it easy, and we'll see next about giving you back some of your sight."

"I won't be able to see perfectly, then?"

"I'm afraid not, Mr. Pilate.  At best, this will allow you to read, scan nearby objects, and commit structural things to memory.  It won't replace your eyes, but I think you'll find it a means of continuing your intellectual pursuits."

"Well, I certainly can't complain about that.  Did you try this device out yourself?"

"I... I did when I first invented the prototype, yes.  But... I-I'm afraid to say that I'm not entirely a fitting or compatible subject."

"Why is that?"

"It's... complicated.  But I'm glad to have this opportunity with you, now.  After hearing what you did on board Ledo's Pride, I think you more than deserve a chance to regain at least a portion of your senses again."

"Is that why you're doing this, then?"

"Hmmm?"

"Is this your attempt to reward me for heroism?"

"Nopony can properly reward you for what you've done, Mr. Pilate.  Over a hundred ponies are alive now thanks to you.  No, I see this as... as..."

"Yes...?"

"A gift, Mr. Pilate.  It's a gift from me to you.  And if it works, then I'll feel like I've done something good... just like you've done something immeasurably wonderful for this world."

"I... I don't know what to say, Miss Bellesmith."

"Please.  Heehee.  Just call me—"





"Belle..."

Pilate raised a trembling hoof.  He gulped.

"Belle... where... wh-where...?"

"Shhhh... Easy does it, Pilate," Eagle Eye said from where he squatted low, cradling the zebra's head.  He gave the stallion's cheek a loving pat and said, "Your beloved's fine.  So is Kera.  A few bumps and bruises, but nothing to be scared of."

"Then..."  Pilate winced, struggling to sit up.  "What happened?  Did we—?"

The mess hall shook—as did the rest of the ship.  Wincing, Eagle Eye held Pilate tight while he glanced up at the rain-swept portholes.  "We're still in the Flurries.  We made it past that one nasty wasterspout, but... but..."

Pilate's clear eyes quivered.  "But what...?"

With a flap of her wings, Rainbow glided down the mess hall.  "This is wrong..."  She gritted her teeth while her mane still dribbled with rain water.  "Something's not right.  You feel that?"

Josho looked up from where he knelt beside Bellesmith and Kera.  "How come we haven't done much shaking and jostling?"

"Th-that's a good thing, right?!" Eagle Eye glanced up.  "We've got the Lounge off our tail and we're out of reach of that cyclone!"

Rainbow gazed out the window.  She saw swirling mists jetting past the Noble Jury on either side.  "But we're not through the storm."  She gulped.  "If you ask me, it's almost like we're being threaded through a particularly nasty needle-eye."

"With each passing week, I don't know what gets more colorful," Josho spat.  "Your mane or your analogies."

"Stay here."  Rainbow Dash darted down the hallway, leaving a trail of rainwater behind her.  "I'm checking on the cockpit!"

"Rainbow, slow down!"  Eagle Eye squeaked.  "You just went water-skiing through a hurricane!  Don't wear yourself out!"  His voice echoed against the bulkheads.  Frowning, he muttered, "If you stripped her of awesome, all you'd have is 'stubborn.'"

Belle nodded, holding Kera close.  "You've no idea..."





Rainbow Dash crawled up the last few rungs of the vertical crawlspace and entered the crowded cockpit.  "Floydien?  Elma?  Can any of you guys tell me just where in the hay we are?!"

"Grrrrnngh!"  Floydien replied with a teeth-gnashing grunt, his cloven hooves clutching tight to the controls of the ship.  "It's like farting down a glimmer canal!  Each direction I budge ends with shake shake!"

"It's been like this for the past ten minutes," Ebon Mane spoke up, sweating nervously.  "As soon as we broke through the tornado, this... path formed..."

Rainbow Dash did a double-take.  "Path?!"

"I've never seen anything like it!"  Elma exclaimed.  "It's like a tiny jetstream of air, blowing in one singular direction!"

"Well, screw the air!"  Rainbow Dash frowned.  "Slow down and try and bank out of it!"

"If it suits the Color Wheel!"  Floydien pulled sideways on the controls.

"Ah jeez, Floydien!"  Ebon flailed.  "Not again—"

The ship instantly rattled as if it was running aground.  Zaid and Ebon bumped into each other yet again while Rainbow had to catch Elma to keep her from falling down the vertical passage.

"Never mind!  Ease off!"  Rainbow spat.  "Ease off!"

Floydien evened the Noble Jury yet again.  "Floydien tried to tell her!"

"Scrkkkk!  Handsome!  What's with the rattle in the saddle?!"

"We're caught in some sort of wind current!"  Elma spoke above the crowd, her reptilian eyes reflecting the jets of rain on both the starboard and port side of the cockpit's windshield.  "Judging from the movement of the precipitation, I'd say we were being shoved forward!"

"You mean Nancy's become a kite?!"

"Let's test that."  Rainbow Dash looked at the elk.  "Floydien?"

"What shimmering idea does the boomer have now?"

"Think you can cut the engines?"

"Nnnngh... Nancy needs a vacation."  Floydien spoke to the intercom.  "Blonde boomer!  You heard the feather feathers!"

"Okies.  Here we goesies."  There was a gulping sound, then the noise of steam pipes hissing.

The ship jostled once, but continued gliding forward.

Rainbow Dash squinted out the windshield.  "...Props, did you cut the engines yet?"

"I sure did, Dashie!  Just thirty seconds ago!"

"But we're still moving forward," Ebon muttered.

"How is this possible...?!"  Elma gazed up at Rainbow with a gaping beak.  "No wind current has maintained itself so cohesively and so powerful for this long!"

"You sure about that?"

"Look at it!"  Elma pointed out with a scaled foot.  "We're in a virtual tunnel, heading in one direction!"

"You sure you can't slow us down any, Mr. Floydien?" Ebon asked.

"Even with sails, Nancy is out of control!"  The elk sneered, "Floydien doesn't like it one bit.  No no no."

"It's almost as if it wants us to go in one direction," Zaid said.

Everypony looked at him.

"What do you mean...?"  Rainbow squinted.  "'It?'"

The ex-cultist shrugged.  "I dunno.  But you gotta admit it's pretty dang eerie."

"Could the Lounge be behind this?"  Ebon remarked.  "Some sort of... mana-induced weather control?"

"No friggin' way," Rainbow Dash muttered, gazing nervously out the windshield.  "I just schooled those guys royally.  I'm sure they're still in one piece somewhere, but they're definitely out for the count."

"Maybe there are more of the dudes in their big black balls?" Zaid said.

"Do you see any flickers of yellow skystone?" Props' voice asked.

The ponies took a few seconds to look.

"Nope, just normal scary-as-heck lightning," Rainbow droned.

"Then I can't imagine what else would empower the Lounge to control a part of the Flurries!"

"We gotta find some way out of here," Ebon said.  "What if pulled a sharp left or right and pierced through just like with the cyclone?"

"Is sailboat boomer a goldfish?!"  Floydien said, "Nancy tried that minutes ago!  Floydien is not about to tear beloved to scrap scrap!"

"Maybe if... uh... uh..."  Rainbow Dash bonked her wet head several times, desperately trying to think.  "Maybe if I got outside, stood myself on the bow, and spread my wings to break the airstream?"

"You really wanna die fabulously today, don't you?" Zaid said with a squint.

"Didn't you tell us earlier that your pegasus limbs can't manipulate this weather for some reason?" Elma said.

Rainbow's ears drooped.  "Darn it, you're right.  Just what is this place?"

"Uhhhhh... bestie friendsies?"  Props' voice crackled over the intercom.  "Why are we accelerating?!"

Ebon's face scrunched.  "We're accelerating?"

"We totally are!"

"Impossible!"  Floydien frowned.  "Floydien didn't tell Nancy Jane to speed up!"  He glanced down at the controls and did a double-take.  "Nancy!  Why do you speed up?!"

The ship started shaking—gently at first—then building up to a turbulent rattle.

"Uhhhhh..."  Ebon squirmed, shuffling backwards as hard sheets of rain pelted the windshield harder and harder.  "Guys?  I don't like this..."

"What's going on?!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"The wind walls are closing in!" Elma Boreal gasped.  "It's like we're being funneled somewhere!"

"Oh great," Zaid muttered.  "A sky toilet—Whoadayum!"  He suddenly fell back.

So did every other pony, for the Noble Jury was taking an inexplicable nose dive.  Air howled through the seams of the bulkheads as the vessel approached incomprehensible velocities.  Floydien tried grabbing his controls, but the sticks jerked and swayed away from him.  Cursing under his breath, he tried zapping all manner of energy bolts into his console, but the ship refused to obey him.

"The steam pipes are doing a fireworks display down here!" Props stammered through the flickering intercom.  "Unky Prowsie and I can barely hold them together!"

"What's going on?!  What's going on?!" Ebon mewled.

"Just don't panic!"  Rainbow shouted above the rattling metal plates all around them.  "There's gotta be a reasonable explanation for—"

The Noble Jury pulled up, evening out and veering slightly to starboard.  As Rainbow Dash clamored for a hoof-hold inside the careening cockpit, she caught a swift glance of the outside world.  Through the gray haze of the Flurries, she spotted a dark shape looming directly ahead.

A deep gasp escaped the pegasus' throat.

Before long, the dark shape spread, becoming several—like gigantic bodies looming in the mists.

"What..."  Elma sputtered, her head cowardly peering from just beneath the lid of her shell.  "What is that...?!"

Something flew past the port side at murderous speed.  Rainbow's head swiveled to see it, but all she managed to spot was a hazy streak.  Something else flew past the starboard side, but she was too slow to spot it.  More shapes loomed.  She looked ahead, spotting dark splotches like islands floating amidst the Flurries.

"Are they ships?!" Ebon breathlessly murmured.  "The Lounge?"

"No..."  Rainbow shook her head.  "Too large!  If I didn't know better—"

"Pressure's increasing!  What in the soot is going on out there, you guys?!"

"Don't look now!"  Zaid exclaimed, pointing ahead with a wickedly bright eyes.  "But I think we're about to hit a wall!"

Gasps filled the cockpit... until the "wall" turned out to be simply a thick sheet of rain.  Nevertheless, everypony braced themselves as the Noble Jury shot on through.  And just like that, all of the turbulence and rattling ended.  It was quiet enough to hear a pindrop.  A coat of rainwater rolled over the windshield, and when it cleared—Rainbow Dash saw buildings, monoliths, temples, courtyards, marble plateaus—all floating like gray balloons in a drizzling pocket of air.

Rainbow Dash's jaw fell agape.  Her eyes blinked, and in that blink she imagined sunny skies and a green Equestrian landscape below.  When her eyelids reopened, she saw a massive building soaring past their starboard side.  She squinted, making out ribbed marble columns and tattered banners.  A sculpted figure dribbled with moisture, bearing a long snout, hooves, and a spread pair of wings.

And then Rainbow felt her pendant rising up against her chin.  Not only that, but her rain-soaked mane was flouncing towards the ceiling.

"We're falling!" Elma shouted.

With a grunt, Floydien finally re-gripped the controls.  He yanked back hard, wheezing into the intercom.  "Blonde boomer!  The engines—"

"Unky Prowsie!  Hit it!  Hit it—Scrkkk!"  Props' voice was cut off by the incessant hiss of steam.

"Even us out!" Zaid shouted.  "Even us out!"

"What does boomer think Floydien is trying—?!"

"Look out!" Ebon squeaked, for a giant marble temple loomed ahead.

Rainbow gasped, then pointed.  "Aim for the center!  There'll be a large open space!  The Jury should be able to fit through!"

"How... d-does Color Wheel know—?!"

"Trust me!  Glide us there!"

Elma hid her head in her shell while Ebon buried his face in his hooves.

Rainbow Dash braced herself against the cockpit's ceiling, watching with wide eyes as the dark structure loomed frighteningly close...





Rain pelted and charred in several places from the Lounge's energy blasts, the Noble Jury plummeted towards the large floating temple.  Sure enough, in between two sets of four marble columns, a large gap loomed.  The Noble Jury fit easily through it.  The rest of the trip, however, was far less graceful.  The vessel's upper skystone made contact first, spitting sparks and tiny chunks of red crystal in every direction.  The ship jolted downwards, and the bottom hull of the gondola struck the marble floor.

The air filled with the ear-splitting cacophony of scraping metal.  The Noble Jury gradually lost its momentum, careening towards its left side as it slid violently across the hollow temple and careened towards the open space on the other side.  For a full thirty seconds, it scraped along, leaving a frictious trail of shrapnel and crumbled mearble bits in its wake.  At last, well before it could emerge on the other side, the vessel finally came to rest against a pair of marble columns.

There, the crashed ship lay still, stuck in a forty-five degree lean.  Its skystone shards flickered and died while every light on board the vessel shorted out.  Everything was dormant, with the Jury's windshield and portholes reflecting lightning from afar.





Slowly, one by one, the ponies inside the cockpit stood up.  Zaid helped Ebon to his hooves while Rainbow Dash knocked politely on Elma's shell.  Miss Boreal stuck her head out while Floydien shook the cobwebs in his antler'd head.

"Everypony in one piece?" Ebon asked.

"I could do with a few less gray hairs, but otherwise I'm peachy keen," Zaid murmured, staring out the cockpit at the marble pillars looming on either side of them.  "Yeesh.  Who parked a vomitorium in the middle of birdspace?"

"Nancy Jane, Floydien loves you..."  The elk muttered, rubbing his muzzle.  "And one of these days, Floydien swears, he's going to buy you some airbags..."

Josho climbed up, sticking his fat head out of the crooked crawlspace below.  "What in the Hell is going on here?!  Did we make it to the Continent on the other side?  Is this Alafreo?!"

Rainbow Dash shook her head.  "Far from it..."

Josho squinted up at her.  "What, you expect me to believe an island just appeared in midair?"

Rainbow bit her lip.

"Scrkkk!  Guys?  At least tell me one thing.  Did we head south all of the sudden?"

Ebon tilted his head towards the console.  "Why's that, Propsy?"

"Cuz it's really, really warm out there!  The instruments are telling me that we're no longer in the arctic!  But how's that possible?"

"The temperature..."  Elma thought aloud.  "Whatever that pocket of air is outside, it's... somehow self-regulated?"

Rainbow Dash gulped.  "Somepony's regulating it, alright."

"Huh?"

"I'm going out there."

"What?!"

Rainbow Dash was already scurrying down the crawlspace.  "I have to find out something!  Keep watch on the ship!"





Eagle Eye was just finishing with helping Pilate and his beloved to their hooves when he heard Rainbow Dash's flapping wings.  He spun around, squinting across the gray spotlights that the portholes made through the dark interior.

"Rainbow...?"

"Stay here with Belle and Pilate, Double-E."  Rainbow Dash stripped of her rain-soaked leather coat and trotted briskly towards the kitchen.  "I'm going outside to investigate."

"Investigate what?!  Rainbow, what's going on?!"

"I said stay inside!  I mean it!"  Rainbow flew on by herself.

"Beloved... I'm so confused..."  Pilate muttered.  "Where are we?"

Belle could only stare out the window leaning above them at an angle.  She saw marble, gusts of rainy wind, and more marble.





With a loud mechanical whir, the hangar doors to the Noble Jury slowly opened.  There was no gust of air pulling Rainbow out.  Instead, everything felt very calm, moist, and humid.  She stepped outside on gently padding hooves.

Standing upon the crooked plank to the hangar, she paused, glancing left and right.

The temple interior stretched before her, flanked by marble columns—beyond which nightmarishly chaotic gales of wind blew in every which direction.

Biting her lip, Rainbow Dash hopped out.  Her hooves clapped as they made contact with the floor—a thing that startled her.

"That's... that's real marble..."  She furrowed her brow as she shuffled forward.  "Then... h-how in Celestia's name is it staying up?"

Nevertheless, she pressed forward, trotting away from the Noble Jury as she approached the nearest edge of the temple.  As she came upon the precipice of the platform, she squinted, for a curtain of veiled sunlight bathed her through the gray malaise.

She looked straight up.

Dozens if not hundreds of identical structures loomed—many of them marble temples, some of them granite effigies of ponies... ponies with wings.  She was too busy taking in the sights of floating domes and levitating obelisks to gasp at any single one detail.

Lightning flashed, and the resulting thunder echoed quadruply off the multiple, floating structures.

Breathless, Rainbow Dash leaned forward, tilting her head to look below.  Through randomly jetting curtains of rain, Rainbow Dash saw more and more granite edifices.  A virtual city loomed within the pocket of cyclonic winds, trapping the structures there... and the Noble Jury as well.

Shuddering, she leaned back, until she became aware of a structure looming directly above her.  She turned around and glanced up.  Her wings spread in surprise.

A sculpture of a mare was positioned at the peak of an arch.  Her dark gray features were slick with perpetual rainwater, all dribbling off her muzzle, helmet, and trademark scowl.

"Commander... Hurricane...?"  Rainbow Dash sputtered.  She blinked, glanced out at the rain and lightning, and blinked again.  A gasp escaped her lips, and she stumbled numbly back into the temple, taking a crooked path back to the Noble Jury.

There, she spotted several Jurists standing along the leaning entrance to the hangar.  Among the crowd was a pale, red-bearded stallion, and he was jumping for joy.

"Och mah stars an' garters! it's real! it's real an' it's haur!"  Grinning from ear to ear, Prowse hoisted Props up and spun around with her in his metallic grip.  "Ah kent it! Ah kent eh'd fin' it!"

"Eeep!  F-find what, Unky Prowsy?!"

"Whit else dae ye hink, lassie?!"  He dropped her and shouted victoriously into the echoing marble chamber.  "The Secret Lost Civilization of Zadubadabu!  Haa haa haa!"  He did a prancing jig, then leaned down to leer at a certain snapping turtle.  "An' ye thooght it was aw a wild goose chase, Tankette!  Weel, mince 'at in yer lettuce hole an' reek it! Professur Prowse has dain it! Noo an' forever!  Hahaaaa!"

Rainbow Dash could only blanch.  She plopped down on her flank and ran a hoof through her sopping wet mane.

Eagle Eye trotted forward to the hangar's edge.  Gazing at the rain-slick temple, he gulped and rested a hoof on Ebon's shoulder to his side.  Ebon tilted his head down and gazed earnestly at the pegasus.  "Rainbow, I... I-I don't get it!  What kind of a place is this?"

Rainbow swallowed hard and looked back up at them.  "Mythological."