//------------------------------//
// Squads and Partners 
// Story: Thundering Fear 
// by touileasaso 
//------------------------------//

Spike wiped his brow from all the hard work he and everyone else had been doing. Truthfully, he wished that he could do more than just move heavy sandbags all over the place, but he would take what he could get, since other ponies seem to be doing a good job at their responsibilities; better than he thought he would be doing anyway. He just hoped that it would be enough to minimize the damage done to the city. He wondered just how Manehattan would look like after the storm hits it.

"Trixie, what the hay is this?"

Spike turned from his seat on the bench to find an annoyed Twilight and a grinning Trixie. Looking above them, he saw that the barrier for the building's window was made to form some sort of stained glass frame of the showmare. Other barriers also showed some frames of Auntie, Twilight, Honey, Blossomforth and his cello goddess Octavia. 'Huh. How come I didn't notice it until now?'

"Why, this is but a caricature of Trixie's Great and Powerful image! Trixie was also kind enough to add our friends to them so everyone can share the spotlight."

"Hey, you didn't forget me, right?" Spike asked hopefully.

Trixie simply pointed her hoof to another building, one with the dragon in some sort of superhero costume.

"Wow, I look awesome!" Spike cheered. "Do you think maybe you can make something like that on paper?"

"That's not the point!" Twilight interrupted, annoyed that she was being ignored. "What I'm saying is, why are you even bothering to put this all up? It's not beneficial to assist in the storm, it takes a lot of needless work to mend the magic into that formation, and it's completely unnecessary!" The unicorn took a breath of frustration, trying to calm down. "So why are you doing this?"

"It is a sign of our defiance to the incoming storm that dares to face us!" Trixie proclaimed dramatically. "We shall show them even as we fight, we stand tall no matter what!"

Twilight slapped a hoof to her face in annoyance. "Okay, first of all, symbolic defiance such as this is not going to put a stop to the storm. It is thoughtful, but it won't improve our chances. Secondly, the time you used warping the magic to look like us could have been used to help install other barriers!"

"Trixie has already done that!" Trixie proudly exclaimed.

"And thirdly-wait, what!?" Twilight did a double-take on what the showmare just told her.

"Whoa, she's not kidding, Twi." Spike told his caretaker. "Just look over there!"

Glancing around her, the purple unicorn saw that indeed all of the windows that were covered in magical barriers had the framing of herself, Spike and all her friends. She even checked their strength to make sure that they weren't neglected and to her surprise, they could withstand a lot of pressure.

She turned to a smug Trixie. "I-I don't understand! How did you do all of this so effortlessly!?" Twilight then paused, a hopeful smile coming to her face. "Maybe...have our studies been helping you? Is that why you were able to do all this?"

"Oh, but my dear Twilight Sparkle!" Trixie exclaimed, her stage persona acting out. "A good magician never reveals her secrets!"

"But what about the time you showed Firecraker the needle trick?" Spike reminded her. "You know, when you take the needle into your hoof and..."

The blue unicorn widened her eyes before glaring at the dragon. "That was a one-time thing! Besides, how was I supposed to say no to a filly who idolizes the Great and Powerful Trixie so much?"

"Are you sure that's all?" Twilight smirked now that the tables have turned. "Weren't you also going to show her the mirror trick?"

"Well, Trixie promised to show her next-Hey!"

Twilight and Spike couldn't help but laugh at the banter they were having. And although Trixie was scowling at them at first, she soon broke into a smile and laughed alongside them. It was good to know that even in dark times such as this, there were still times for laughs and smiles.



Even after all the words of assurance and comfort from the Wonderbolt Soarin, Blossomforth still felt uneasy around so many Wonderbolt trainees. This wasn't last time like Operation Rainfall, this was a serious disaster that everypony had to confront. Blossomforth shuddered at the thought of Lightning Dust and what she would do if she were still around. Thank Celestia she isn't.

Soarin noticed her discomfort and frowned. He hated seeing others so distressed like this. "Relax, these are nice ponies. They'll take care of you."

Blossomforth said nothing, looking around at all the pegasi suiting up in shock suits to prepare for their flight, doing warm-ups, stretching their wings, double-checking their equipments and some were talking to one another to pass the time. Being around so many possible Wonderbolt-to-bes...it was really nerve-wrecking. Blossomforth felt really out of place in this area. Here she was, a simple weather cadet, among a big group of Wonderbolt trainees. She knew that Rainbow Dash would be steaming in jealousy if she had ever found out about this.

"Here, put this on." Soarin said, giving her a black and white suit.

Blossomforth recognized the touch of fabric from the suit. "A shock suit? But I thought that we were going to go in a lighter area of the storm! Why do we need these!?"

"With this storm coming in so unpredictably, the captain has decided to not take any risks. Better safe than sorry." Soarin answered seriously.

Blossomforth had to agree on that. From her lessons at Flight Academy, all pegasi were taught that clouds were unpredictable in nature and could change form at any moment if left unchecked. With a deep breath, the flower loving pegasus slowly and carefully put her suit on, being careful with her tail, mane and most importantly, her wings fitting through the sockets meant for them.

After she finished putting it on, Blossomforth looked at her reflection on the lake. She felt like the color did not match her mane and it felt very odd wearing it, but she assumed that's because it was her first time wearing a shock suit. The suit felt pressed against her body, but not too tight. In fact, she felt rather flexible wearing the suit.

"So, are you used to the suit?" Soarin asked patiently.

"Well...it fits." Blossomforth chuckled.

The lieutenant nodded with a smile. "That's good! Now..."

"Hey, lieutenant!"

Soarin sighed at the interruption, turning to see a black pegasus flying toward him, balancing a box on his backside. "Thunderlane, you should be really careful to not interrupt your superiors so suddenly. If I was anypony else, like Spitfire, she'd reprimand you for poor conduct and have you do twenty wing-ups."

"My apologies sir, but I've brought back your order from Orange Catering." Thunderlane explained.

Soarin perked up excitedly upon hearing that, staring eagerly at the box Thunderlane was holding. "Really!? Are you saying that...!?"

"Yes sir." Thunderlane said, giving him the box. "Your Orange Cream Pie is here."

"That's wonderful!" Soarin gleefully cried. He instantly tore the box open, revealing the orange pie Thunderlane had brought. Practically drooling at the sight of the food, he immediately began eating it, happily scarfing down the delicious treat.

Blossomforth could only look on stunned at the behavior of the lieutenant of the Wonderbolts. He greatly differed from Spitfire who was firm, serious, authorative, commanding yet reasonable figure of the Wonderbolts while Soarin was more easygoing, cheerful, and relaxed yet was serious on his job despite his eccentricities. And did he really like eating pie that much? Blossomforth could've sworn that she saw no crumbs left on the plate when he was finished!

"Is...is he always like this? With pie I mean?" Blossomforth asked Thunderlane.

"Pretty much. He's absolutely nuts for them." he chuckled. "Whenever we have our Wonderbolt meetings, you can bet that he'll be serving himself at the pie section.

"All right you two, that's enough." Soarin spoke in. "Now that my belly is full and we have another volunteer to help us in this area, you'll be partnering with her, Thunderlane."

"Me, sir?" the trainee asked in surprise. "Er...can I ask why?"

"For one, she's not connected to the Wonderbolts, so she needs to be supervised at all times. And no matter what, no one flies alone on our flights. That's the Wonderbolt way."

"I...I understand, sir." Thunderlane saluted. "I'll look after her."

"At ease. No need to be so uptight all the time." Soarin chuckled. "Well, I'd better get going. I hope you two work well together!" And with that, he flew away to the other pegasi.

"So uh, what's up?" Thunderlane began, trying to strike up a conversation. "You doing all right?"

"Honestly? No, not really." Blossomforth sighed. "I want to help with the storm problem, I really do, but at the same time I'm also scared that my fear of lightning will just screw things up."

Thunderlane blinked, turning to face the mare. "I'm sorry, did you say that you're afraid of lightning?"

"Uh yeah, pretty much."

"Um, wow." Thunderlane rubbed his neck. "I didn't really expect for a pegasus of all ponies to be scared of lightning of all things..." 

Blossomforth narrowed her eyes at the black stallion, which made him shrink back. "And why is that!? Do you have a problem with me being afraid of lightning!?" she exclaimed, not liking his attitude.

"No, no! I just think that it's a bit weird for someone who flies in the sky to be afraid of thunder, that's all!" Thunderlane sputtered.

"Weird!? So you're saying I'm a freak, is that it!?" Blossomforth shouted angrily. She kept marching toward the retreating stallion, cornering him into a parked cart. "Just who do you think you are, somepony who is training to be a wonderbolt, to talk to me like that!? I am terrified of storms, but I'm still here because I want to help no matter what and if you can't understand that, you might as well not even bother to help!"

Thunderlane gulped from Blossomforth's outbursts, especially when they were drawing attention from other ponies. He became even more nervous when Soarin began to stare in their direction. He had to come up with something fast before he gets in trouble.

"L-look I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way!" Thunderlane apologized.

"Then what did you mean!?" Blossomforth asked, staring straight at him.

"Well, I was just thinking that it would be a lot of hard work to be partners with you with your fear and all."

"So now you're saying I'm slowing you down!?"

Thunderlane widened his eyes at the extremely offended Blossomforth. He really could have said something better than that...

"Hey, just what is going on here?" Asked one of the senior Wonderbolts, coming to see what the commotion was about.

"Nothing, really!" Thunderlane quickly assured. "I just made one comment about her weight and she snapped!"

"Now you're calling me fat!?!?" Blossomforth shrieked at her partner, who cringed from her shout. He really put his hoof in his mouth now...



After Blossomforth's outburst got sorted out, all of the volunteers were lined up with a moody Blossomforth standing next to a sheepish Thunderlane. After his insensitive remarks from earlier she tried to see if there were any other pegasi to partner up with instead of him, but couldn't find any. So in the end, she reluctantly came back to him, only to help out with the incoming storm.

Soarin stood in front of the volunteers with a clipboard in his hoof and a map of the city standing on a tripod. After calming Blossomforth down, he scolded Thunderlane for his careless comments, saying that no Wonderbolt should look down on anypony. While the trainee did say he was sorry, it would take more than just apologies to resolve everything. He would take care of that later, right now he had a job to do.

"All right everypony, here's how this will work..." Soarin instructed. "Spitfire's group will first move out to face the cumulonimbus cloud outside of Manehattan and try to force some water out of it before it reaches the city, hopefully minimizing the damages it would have done." Using a marker, he drew a line northwest out from the city map, detailing Spitfire's movement. "Next, Fleetfoot's squad will be at the center of the city and attempt to create a strong current of wind to strike at the storm cloud, with a group of unicorn volunteers to assist them with their magic." The lieutenant drew a black cloud in the center of the map with a zigzag circle surrounding it. "If successful, the storm cloud should scatter into several smaller clouds which should lighten the intensity of the storm." Soarin then drew one more line around the city. "And finally, we'll be stationed near the outskirts of the city. They are the most fragile areas susceptible to storm damage, so it's our job to defend it from the storm as much as possible. Now, are there any questions?"

A white pegasus male white black mane and tail raised his foreleg. "Lieutenant, what if Fleetfoot's team fail to break apart the cumulonimbus cloud?  How will we deal with that?"

"Should that happen, then the unicorns will take shelter back inside the buildings while Fleetfoot's and Spitfire's teams come to give us backup. Any other questions?"

After Soarin was done answering the group's concerns, Thunderlane glanced over to the still ticked Blossomforth. He knew he made a bad first impression on her, and wanted to fix things before the storm arrived so he could work better with her.

"Um, Blossomforth?" he whispered, getting her attention.

"What do you want now, jerk?" she snapped.

"I'm sorry I hurt your feelings earlier. I have a bad habit of putting my hoof in my mouth with other ponies, and I didn't mean to offend you. So er, are we cool?"

Blossomforth took a deep breath to calm herself, then turned to her partner. "I guess so. I'm also sorry for shouting at you earlier. It's weird, I haven't really snapped like that at anypony at all before."

"Maybe it's because all the stress is getting to your head. It happens." Thunderlane reassured.

"Wow. Stress can be an ugly thing."

"Tell me about it. I actually thought that you were going to pounce on me earlier."

"That was your fault you know." Blossomforth reminded him.

"I know, I know. I messed up, you don't need to remind me."

"I just thought I'd-OH! I can't believe it!" she suddenly squealed.

"Huh? What? What did I do this time!?" Thunderlane stuttered nervously.

"No, look over there!" Blossomforth pointed to a flower near a tree. Eagerly but gently dying over to it, she bent down to eye-level with flower, a big smile on her face. "It's a Middlemist Red! This is a really hard flower to find! I can't believe I didn't see this earlier!"

Thunderlane found himself grinning at her enthusiasm over the red flower.  "So, you're a fan of flowers?"

"Absolutely!" the female pegasus beamed. "I have a whole garden and greenhouse of flowers back at home!"

"Heh, it's kinda funny to see a pegasus love flowers so much, you know what I mean?" Thunderlane chuckled. He stopped when he noticed Blossomforth's expression change somberly. He did it again. "I uh, I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that, I just..."

"It's fine. It's not like I don't like the sky or anything, it's just that..." Blossomforth sat down, still looking somber. "I'm different from the other pegasus around Cloudsdale, and I was teased, ignored and made fun of all the time. I found comfort in the flowers. They were one of the only friends I had at the time, along with Fluttershy."

Thunderlane's eyebrows shot up. "Fluttershy? You're friends with her?"

"Yeah, didn't you see us at the Best Fliers competition?"

"Nope, I had the Feather Flu by then. Sucked really, I wanted so badly to watch the competition."

"Oh..." Blossomforth cringed, knowing just how nasty the Feather Flu could be.

A thought suddenly entered Thunderlane's mind, one that he knew would make Blossomforth sad. But he had to let her know now instead of later. "Hey, Blossomforth? I just thought of something that could be bad for you..." he said warily.

"Wh-what is it?"

"With the storm coming in, there's no doubt that there will be plenty of damaged houses and buildings. Unfortunately, that also means your flowers won't make it through the storm."

Blossomforth's eyes widened at the revelation. With the news of the storm coming up, she never thought about it before. But now, imagining her lovelies blown away, uprooted from the earth by fierce winds...she didn't know if she could take it.

"My...my poor flowers...no..." Blossomforth sniffled, tears falling from her eyes.

Thunderlane wrapped a comforting wing around her. "I'm so sorry. You must have worked really hard on them."

"I did...and now...just the thought of seeing my home without them...I don't know if my heart can take it..."

Thunderlane sat alongside Blossomforth for a minute or so, trying to think of something to say to cheer up the crying white mare beside him.

"You know..." he began, catching his partner's attention. "There are three sisters back in Ponyville who run a flower shop. If you'd like, I can take you to them and then we can see what kind of flowers you want from them so we can bring it back to your house to plant them there."

"Really?" Blossomforth asked, wiping away her tears. "You'd do that for me?"

Thunderlane grinned. "Hey, partners look out for each other, right? It's the Wonderbolt way."

Blossomforth smiled softly touched by Thunderlane's generous offer. Maybe he wasn't so bad of a pony after all.

"Thunderlane...thanks..." Blossomforth said, a tinge of red on her cheeks.

Thunderlane nodded. "Hey, anytime."



"All right, everypony in position?"

Spitfire looked over her squad clad in shock suits, prepared to face the storm head-on.

"Yes, ma'm!" they chorused.

"Good! Everypony follow my lead and start on the outer parts of the cumulonimbus, it's where it'll be easier to knock away portions of the cloud." Spitfire put her googles over her eyes. "Wonderbolts! Time to take off!"

"Wait!!! Spitfire!!!"

Spitfire looked over to where the shout was coming from and saw a  yellow pegasus with a saddlebag rapidly flapping her wings towards Spitfire. She fell in a heap on the roof, completely exhausted from the flight.

"Are you all right?" Spitfire asked her, helping her up.

"I'll be fine..." she answered, before shaking her head and looking serious. "A-anyway, I've come here to bring you an urgent message from the weather factory that was studying the cumulonimbus headed toward Manehattan. From their analysis, they found that the storm cloud is...abnormal."

"Abnormal?" Spitfire warily asked. She had a bad feeling about where this was going.

"Yeah, it's written in this report here that I'm supposed to give you."

Taking an envelope out from her saddlebag, she gave it to the captain who began to read its contents. Her eyes widened when she finished reading the report.

"This is worse than we thought..." Spitfire whispered.

"Captain, what did the letter say?" someone from her squad asked in worry.

Spitfire turned to her team and issued new orders. "Wonderbolts, change of plans! We have to warn everypony about this new discovery now!"