Unity

by Kieva Lynn

Prologue

Equestria. The first warning sign was something so small that many ponies didn't even notice it at first. Even those that did failed to understand the import. Rainbow Dash, having assigned her weather crews to their jobs for the day, was sleeping soundly atop a small cloud she had fashioned for just that purpose. Supposedly she was seated in the high-altitude position looking down to monitor her crew's progress, but she knew they could be trusted. And so she slept, and dreamed.

In her dream, crowds were chanting her name as she stood in a Wonderbolts suit, a Gold Medal around her neck. "Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!" the dream crowds chanted, and then the Princesses flew down from above.

"Rainbow Dash," Dream Celestia said, "You are the greatest flier our nation has ever seen. That is why I am taking away your Gold Medal and replacing it with the first, last, and only Platinum Medal instead!"

Rainbow smiled as the crowds chanted louder. This was the best dream she had ever had, or at least it would have been if not for the fact that she had it at least once a week. Plus, that flashing was getting annoying. Were there press ponies taking her picture? She looked all around but saw nopony with a camera. The flash strobed again, brighter than before...

...And Rainbow woke up. "What the hay?" she muttered. "That's never happened before... What was the deal with those lights?" And then another flash came, and the pegasus realized the truth: The flashs in her dream had came from something in the real world. Casting about her gaze, she saw storm clouds in the distance, beyond the Everfree, with lightning flashing about both in the clouds and from them to the ground.

"Past the Everfree... That's near Mule's Coast... There's not supposed to be rain there today..." Rainbow sat and watched the storm. The longer she watched, the more unnerved she grew. There was something about it...

Making a decision, Rainbow held an enchanted gem to her ear. "Cloudkicker, you hear me?"

"Loud and clear boss, what's up?"

"I'm not sure... Get everypony together and meet me up here. I wanna get your opinion on something..."

Earth. Just outside Fallow Meadow, Indiana. Bertram Gumbal, 'Bert' to his friends, stared at his radio in confusion. Something was causing significant static and interference, and he couldn't figure out what it could be. "No storms on the radar... No unusual sunspot activity... No signs of the feds doing anything in the area that they'd be jamming the airwaves for..."

"Grrrowl..." Bert looked down at Shadow, his two year-old Malamute, and grinned.

"You don't get it either eh?" He asked the dog. It gave a huge yawn in response.

Bert shook his head. He knew exactly what everyone in town would think if they saw him getting upset over this. "Ol' Bert's at it again, crazy survivalist that he is." They would say. He didn't mind the survivalist part. That was true through and through. But crazy? Hell no. He wasn't one to see aliens and conspiracies in everything around him. He actually trusted the government, to an extent. He just felt better knowing that if things went south he had a radiation-hardened shelter, ten years of food, and enough weapons and ammo to outfit a platoon.

With a sigh, Bert rose, grabbed a backpack, and motioned for Shadow to follow. Man and beast walked side by side up the stairs, out the back door, and up another, exterior staircase to the roof of their home/fortress. "What the hell?" Bert whispered. To the east, he could see a vast swath of dark clouds flickering with lightning, where there shouldn't have been anything according to the weather radar he had just checked.

The storm was too far away to hear the thunder, so Bert rifled around in his pack until he found what he was searching for: a directional microphone. Pointing to the east, he could now hear the rumble of thunder. He waited for a especially brilliant bolt and started counting. "one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand..." He reached twelve before the thunder rolled in his ears.

Reaching over to scratch Shadow behind the ears, Bert waited five minutes, then counted again. This time he only got to ten. "Coming this way... Storms never come in from the east around here though..."

Bert's thoughts were interrupted by a low growling. It took him a moment to realize the source; Shadow. The dog, who normally liked stormy weather, was staring at the distant storm, hackles up, growling under his breath.

"Yeah, I've got a bad feeling too boy..." Bert whispered. The dog growled louder...

Equestria. Twilight Sparkle sat in an oversized chair sipping tea and reading her newest acquisition: "Manticores Are From Mars, Venus Flytraps Are From Venus." She had to admit it was a strange tome. The author was either writing it as a parody, in which case he was a genius, or writing it seriously in which case he needed to be locked in a padded room. Either way, it was worth a laugh, which the mare needed after a hectic week. Chuckling at the book's contention that "Manticores are an asexually reproducing species, a fact necessitated by the lack of womanitcores" Twilight took a sip of her tea... ...And promptly spit it back out as she was startled by a sudden loud booming knock from the door.

"What in the world...?" Twilight trotted to the door, unhooked the locks, and opened up to find Rainbow Dash. The pegasus was looking rather haggard and unkempt, prompting Twilight to ask "What happened to you?"

By way of an answer, Rainbow grabbed Twilight and flew straight up with her, perhaps a hundred feet, then pointed towards the Everfree with a free hoof and said "That thing happened."

Twilight's gaze followed the line her friend was pointing in, and she was the storm, now looming high over the forest. "A magic storm?" She asked. "But you've busted up tons of those in the past."

"Not like this one." Rainbow answered. She flew back to the ground and let Twilight go. "That's not just wild magic from the Everfree... I first saw it when it was off past the forest... And it's coming this way, right for the town!"

"And the weather team can't break it up?"

"Tried." Rainbow said. "That's how I got so roughed up."

Twilight shook her head. "Okay, tell me exactly what happened."

Rainbow nodded and began her story: "So I see this thing off where there's not supposed to be any rain today. Looked wrong somehow, can't explain any better than that, sorry. Anyway, I got the whole crew together and told them we were gonna try to break it up. We approached like normal for that kind of thing, but then... I dunno Twi, it was like I hit a solid wall that wouldn't let me get close enough to do anything. The others did too."

"Weird." Twilight mused. "Then what?"

"Well, I had the others stay back, tried a couple more times myself... Same thing every time. Then Dust Devil said he wanted to try something. He did this high altitude corkscrewing maneuver, tried to drop in on it from directly above..."

"And...?"

"And it blasted him with a really powerful lightning bolt!" Rainbow exclaimed. "He's gonna be okay, pegasus electrical resistance and all, but it was so strong he was knocked out, we had to fly him to the hospital."

"Hold on Dash, are you saying that a thunderstorm purposely blasted somepony with lightning!?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you." Rainbow insisted. Seeing Twilight's skeptical expression she said "Look, I don't blame you for doubting, but if you'd seen it yourself you'd know. It was on purpose."

Twilight decided to humor Rainbow's absurd claim. "Well..." She said, "If that's true then it implies a controlling intelligence... Which for something like a cloud would mean that somepony enchanted the storm magically... Carry me back up, I wanna check something."

Rainbow did so, and Twilight's horn lit up as she scanned the area around the storm, examining the Thaumic Field in detail. She knew that the rogue storm had to be magical in nature, given the barrier that stopped the pegasai from entering it. She also knew that on the odd chance Rainbow wasn't wrong there would be a structured coherent latticework to the magic, in order to create the intelligence.

Of course, Twilight didn't think Rainbow could be right about the storm actually attacking somepony with malice. And so she wasn't shocked to find no sign of such a lattice. But as she scanned deeper, she got one of the biggest surprises of her life: There was NO magical energy in the storm at all... Not even the background magic that permeated all of existence. It was like a null spot, a void.

Twilight's jaw dropped open. She didn't know what such a void could mean. But she felt sure that whatever it meant, it was going to be very, very bad. "Dash, get us to the Mayor's Office right now!" She exclaimed...

Earth. For a relatively small town, Fallow Meadow had an active social scene. Partly this was all of the teenagers around; The High School for the entire surrounding county was on the northeast edge of town, and everyone from the school hung out in the town itself. Another reason was an excellent family-owned diner, called "The Spoony Bard" for reasons only the owners understood. When Bert raced into town behind the wheel of his Hummer, he knew the diner was his best bet for finding who he needed to find.

The survivalist swerved neatly into an open spot before the building's front doors, pausing only a moment too keep up his composure. He glanced up at the sign, the diner's name in neon, with an animated element featuring two characters. One was the eponimous bard, with a lute in his hands. The other was an old man with a cane. The animation depicted the old man jumping up and smacking the bard over the head over and over. For the thousandth time Bert wondered what it meant. With a sigh he exited the vehicle, Shadow close at his heels.

Inside the diner, waitress Florence Maxwell was already having a bad day. Both of her usual coworkers had called in sick, leaving her to handle the entire customer load alone. As she hustled between tables and booths, Flo tried to distract herself by listening to the animated discussions going on between a pair of men at the counter. This was a daily ritual for the two; they spent at least an hour every morning bantering back and forth over coffee, on pretty much any subject that caught their attention.

As she refreshed their drinks, the younger of the two asked "How you holdin' up Flo?"

"I'd walk out, but three people's worth of tips is too good to pass up." Flo answered honestly.

"I hear you there."

"I'd like to see what happened if she did walk out." The older man said. "Can you see the look on Herb's face?" He laughed.

"Now Phil, that's another reason why I can't." Flo said. "He'd try to handle it all alone, and you know the kinda state his heart is in."

Everyone looked up and out the front window as they heard a screeching sound. They saw Bert's expert swerve into the empty parking spot. "Show off." Phil said.

"It's just Bert, you know what he's like."

Watching as Bert stepped out of his seat, Flo's eyes widened. "I know he's not actually bringing the dog in here..."

But he was. Bert rushed in through the front door, Shadow close behind. "Bert! No dogs!" Flo exclaimed.

"Call him a service animal." Bert replied. He looked at the younger of the two men at the counter. "Rog, you've got weatherman training right?"

"Minored in meteorology. What's this about?"

"Bad storm comin' in from the east. Real bad..."

Roger favored Bert skeptically. "That doesn't make any sense..." He pulled his cell and activated the radar app. "See, nothing."

Bert shook his head. "Gonna have to do this the hard way." He muttered. Saying "Come on." He grabbed Roger by the ear and pulled him off his stool, around the counter, and towards the roof access stairs.

"Hey! Hey let go! Damn it Bert what's the deal!?" Roger complained.

With Phil and Florence following, Bert dragged Roger to the up the stairs and out onto the roof. He pointed east. "That look like nothing to you?"

Roger's jaw dropped open as he looked up to the storm clouds now looming high into the eastern sky. He looked back and forth between the storm and his cell's screen. "That's not possible."

"Lord a' mercy this looks bad." Flo whispered.

Bert nodded. "Yeah, even Shadow's spooked and he usually likes storms."

Roger finally found his voice again. "I um, I think we'd better call Sheriff Tucker... They might wanna sound the storm sirens..."

Equestria. Twilight and Rainbow arrived at the Ponyville Town Hall to find a crowd already gathering, looking towards the approaching storms with trepidation and fear. "Twi!" A familiar voice called out. Applejack rushed to her friend's side. "What's happenin'?"

"I'm still not sure." Twilight replied. "But it's good that everypony is here. I think we should get the whole town inside, to the basement shelter."

"Alright then, I'll get things movin.'"

"Good." Twilight nodded. "Is there anypony who's not here yet?"

"Just Flutters, livin' so far out by the Everfree."

Rainbow's eyes went wide. "What!? But that means she already under the storm by now!" Before Twilight could stop her, the pegasus was gone.

"Oh I hope she knows what she's doing." Twilight said.

As she streaked towards her shy friend's home, Rainbow was careful to regulate her speed. As much as she wanted to get there as fast as possible, she knew that a rainboom might trigger another lightning bolt attack from the storm and that was the last thing she needed. Overhead, the clouds churned and flashed and rumbled, a deep rolling thunder that never quite ended.

Then, just as she was reaching her destination, the sun shone through. "What the buck?" Rainbow thought. She looked up and her mouth dropped open in awe. A massive circular wall of rotating clouds was spinning about, still filled with lightning and thunder, but the sky directly above was clear. "An eye?" She thought. "Only hurricanes are supposed to have those..."

Shaking herself back to the task at hand, she banged on Fluttershy's door and was unsurprised by the lack of an answer. "Flutters! Flutters it's me open up!" She exclaimed.

Getting no answer, Rainbow decided to switch over to her usual brash attitude: She turned around and bucked the door in. Flying into the house, Rainbow needed only moments to find Fluttershy clinging to Angel, both of them hiding under her bed. "C'mon, let's go!"

"Oh but I can't go! The little animals might be hurt after the storm is over!"

"And that won't mean anything if you're too hurt to help them!" Rainbow countered. She grabbed ahold of a hoof and started dragging Fluttershy out from under the bed, switching positions when possible to grab ahold under Shy's wings and start forcibly carrying her, out the door and back towards town.

"Rainbow Dash! Put me down!"

"When we're safe!"

Back at the Town Hall, Twilight and her friends stood gazing out the doors at the pending storm which now filled the sky from horizon to horizon. They had managed to safely secure everypony else in the basement, save for the staff and patients at Ponyville Hospital, which were sheltering in place.

"Come on Dash, get back here already!" Twilight worried.

"Oh it's Dashie, she'll be fine!" Pinkie said.

"I hope so."

"Should we risk going after her?" Rarity asked.

Applejack shook her head. "Much as I want to, no. That'd just be more of us outside in... ...that."

"Hey look!" Pinkie exclaimed, pointing, "There's clear sky! Maybe it's gonna blow over!"

"I don't think so Pinkie..." Twilight said. As they watched, the eye of the storm was coming into view, and followed closely behind a pair of pegasai, one exhausted, the other annoyed.

"Oh thank goodness you're both here!" Rarity said.

Rainbow was panting hard from the exertion. Fluttershy looked ready to give her the stare. And then, before anything else could happen, a low whistling sound started, and grew louder and louder. Six ponies stared at the sky, watching a display unlike any they had ever seen...

Earth. Bert and the crowd from the diner stared apprehensively out the front windows as the storm sirens began to blare. The last few citizens still out in the streets ran for shelter wherever they could find it. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in an ever-increasing cacophony of visual and auditory stimulation.

“Look! The sun's coming out!” Florence said.

The eye of the storm settled in over Fallow Meadows. A whistling sound screamed, audible even over the sirens...

On two worlds, impossible storms whirled and boomed and crashed.

On two worlds, impossible storms settled in over small towns.

On two worlds, a loud whistle cut through the skies, accompanied by a tremendous surge in lightning and thunder along the storm's eye walls.

...On two worlds, storms vanished as quickly as they had formed, leaving behind no sign that they had ever been there... ...And no sign of the towns they had settled over...

Somewhere else. Situated in the shadow of a vast mountain range to dwarf the greatest peaks on Earth were a pair of small meadows, perhaps two miles apart from each other. They were bisected by a small creek, and surrounded by forests filled with life. It was, from any reasonable viewpoint, a picturesque locale. Not that anyone had ever thought so since this world was not home to anything intelligent. That was about to change.

Into each meadow came a blinding flash of white light, which faded away to reveal a pair of towns. Towns which, in both cases, were left to wonder just what had happened, and where they now were...