Appledashery

by Just Essay


Power On Through It

Rainbow couldn't count how many times her ears had popped since entering the funnel of the cyclone. It took her almost a full minute to fly herself upright, and even then she couldn't see the spinning horizon through the thick dust howling all around her. Once she was almost certain about what was "up" from what was "down," she arced her body to the right and followed the rotation until she drew closer and closer to the base. At one point, she hit major air resistance, and her body ached from the impenetrable winds rippling against her.

"Hrmmmfff... nghhhh..." Gnashing her teeth, she braved a look behind her. In a blink or two, she caught several dark shapes in the rotating cloud—and almost all of them were lagging several meters behind. "If anypony can hear me!" She hollered. "I'm... gnnngh... g-gonna approach the base! I need twice as many ponies occupying Tier Two as possible!"

FW-FWOOOOSH! A particularly strong gust tore at her wings.

"Aaaugh!" She grimaced, angling her body to pierce through the madness. She managed to not lose too much momentum. "We have to gather ourselves at the base in order to disrupt the rotation! The sooner we do it, the less debris we have to contend with! Now form up! I'm going in!"

She thought she heard voices shouting back at her, but there was no time to delay and find out if her commands had registered with the rest or not. The mare pressed on, clenching her eyes shut as she fought against the howling gale at the base of the tornado.

"Mrmmmff... come on... come onnnn..."

Her spine ached. Her wingfeathers tingled with pain, threatening to rip loose at the quills.

The air above her whistled—but for another reason. One by one, a dozen bodies descended, creating a dense formation over her head. Pegasus shapes sliced their way until they were riding the spinning currents as evenly as possible.

"Rainbow!" Sharp Quill's voice hollered. "Rainbow Dash, are you there?!"

"Stay in line!" Rainbow hollered through the bedlam. "I can't pull back! We have to have at least one pony at the base or else we'll lose the entire thing!"

"What's your plan for once you get there?!"

"Wind drag!"

"Huh?!"

"I'll angle my wings against the current and use the weight of my body to—"

"Your feathers will rip off at the speed this thing is going!"

"Not with you guys there to help me!" Rainbow hollered. "When I shout the word 'Go,' I want you all to do the same! Angle your wings so you'll drag against the wind! One way or another, we gotta break this thing up before it reaches Ponyville!"

"Won't you need help at the first tier?!"

"Can anypony make it to me?!"

"Uhhhh... uhhhhhhhh..."

"Sharp Quill?!" Rainbow Dash gnashed her teeth as bits of branches and clumps of dirt surged past her. "Grnnngh... we don't have time for this! Is anypony close enough to join me?!"

"I... I'm here, Rainbow..."

Sputtering, Rainbow glanced aside.

She caught the barest hint of a dangling fetlock in her peripheral. She immediately recognized the coat color.

"Stu!" she hollered. "You alone?!"

"I've got Wind Whistler and Raindrops here!" Stu exclaimed. "But I don't think any of us can make it to you!"

"Well, you gotta make it here anyway!" Rainbow shouted. "The more we have at the base, the better!"

"Rainbow, the winds are too thick!" Stu hollered back. "There's no sense in us killing ourselves! There's no sense in you killing yourself!"

"Are we a team or aren't we?!" Rainbow frowned. She found it hard to stare into the cyclone without her goggles. "We just gotta power on through it! For Ponyville!"

"Oh Celestia," a mare's voice whimpered. Rainbow assumed it was Raindrops. "We're about to hit the edge of the forest!"

"Rainbow!" Sharp Quill hollered. "We're running out of clear ground!"

"Then no more wasting time!" Rainbow fought and struggled and kicked her way towards the base. "Stu! Move your flank! Tell the other two with you to do the same—"

"Just one."

"Huh?!"

"Wind Whistler fell back!" Stu hollered. "Just you and me and Raindrops now!"

"Fine! Whatever! Just move! Move!" Rainbow stuck both forelimbs forward. Through the numbness, she felt a torturous bubbling in her blood from the sheer force of the wind she was pushing against. "Grnnngh... going to... m-make a cone of air! If you follow right behind me—"

"Got it! Wind Whistler! At my side!"

"You have to fl-fly even, Stu!"

"No, I have to follow Rainbow Dash! She's clearing a path for us! Can't you se—"

"Rainbow!" Sharp Quill's voice echoed down the hellish funnel. "We're hitting the forest now—!" His voice was swallowed up by an immense tearing noise. Down below, the earth exploded with twigs, branches, and shattered trunks.

"Debris!" Stu Leaves hollered. "Debris incoming! Everypony brace yoursel—"

THW-THW-THWOOOOSH! Splintery objects flew into the funnel, spinning at maddening speeds and slicing their way around the cyclone's circumference.

"Keep your momentum!" Rainbow hollered. "Upper tiers! Rotate so that your soft bellies face the center—"

"Aaaaugh!" A pony flew out of formation, narrowly dodging a large boulder.

Up above, all along the tornado's structure, Rainbow heard shrieks and yelps as ponies were knocked clear from their spinning paths. Bodies flew out of the tempest, landing roughly across the shattered earth, where they collapsed dazed and aching.

"We're losing wingmates left and right!" Sharp Quill hollered. "Rainbow, if we're going to stop this thing, we gotta do it now before it picks up even more debris!"

"Right!" Rainbow Dash shouted up the funnel. "It's now or never! Stu?! Raindrops?! With me!"

"With you what?!" Raindrops sputtered.

"We have to make wind drag right when she does!" Stu exclaimed.

"Oh goddess..."

"You ready up there, Sharp Quill?!"

"Ready as we'll ever be!"

"On 'go!' Three... two... one..." Rainbow Dash angled her wings back. "GO!" She immediately regretted the act. Her body screamed in pain. Waves of agony shot up and down her spine. However, with gnashing teeth, she held her wings in place, catching as much air into her pegasus limbs as possible. "Mrnnnnnghhhh-gauuughhhh!"

Stu howled in pain.

Raindrops shrieked... shrieked again and—FWOOOSH!

"Raindrops!" Rainbow wheezed.

"Too late, Rainbow!" Sharp Quill's pained voice echoed. "She's collapsed somewhere outside the tornado!"

"Keep... dragging...!" Rainbow sputtered, eyes tearing. "We're all that remains...!"

"Sharp!" Stu wheezed, quivering all over. "Is... is it doing anything—?!"

"Ground movement has slowed! But the thing's spinning out of control!"

"It'll do that! But it's working!" Rainbow panted. "Just have to... h-have to maintain it!"

"My wings are going to fl-fly off..." Stu whimpered.

"Then suck 'em in!" Rainbow growled. "Or else they're forever gonna call us the losers that wrecked Ponyville—

"Water!" Sharp Quill shouted. "We're going over water!"

Rainbow gasped. Her eyes darted to the center of the tornado in time to spot a wave of blue misting madly towards them.

"Waterspout procedures!" Rainbow's voice cracked. "Everypony hold your breat—"

POWWW!

"Aaaaugh!" Stu Leaves hollered. The watery wave struck him hard and he flew back.

"Rnnngh!" Rainbow Dash flung a hoof out, catching him by the fetlock.

Stu gasped.

With a yell, Rainbow twisted her muscles and pulled him in beside her.

Both pegasi pierced the mists together and swirled around the base of the funnel.

"What... why...?" Stu yelped.

"Because I still need you, Einstallion!" Rainbow looked up, panting. "The cyclone's slowing. Sharp!" She hollered. "Sharp Quill! How's everypony?!"

Nothing but howling winds.

"Sharp?!?" Rainbow wheezed.

"I think they're gone," Stu stammered. "The water coalesced above us and shoved them out."

Rainbow's wet ears twitched. "...explains why the wind's picking up again."

"Ah jeez..." Stu gritted his teeth, flying beside her in circles and circles. "Ah jeez we're screwed."

"No we're not—"

"We bucked up! We destroyed Ponyville—"

"We're in the exact place we need to be!" Rainbow shoved Stu into position and resumed her slicing revolutions. "Now gain some air and prepare to drag wind again!"

"What, just the two of us?!"

"It'll have to do!"

"But the tornado's too massive!"

"We almost broke it up just a minute ago!"

"Rainbow, we had a second tier of wingmates to help us then! What do we have now?!"

"We have a lot of guts and at least two balls between us! And I'm not telling you which belong to who!"

"Dammit, Rainbow, this is not Cider Space!" Stu shouted. "Doing the impossible can kill us!"

"Then do the impossible anyway!"

"Huh?!"

She frowned back at him. "You have what it takes to make this work, Stu! You always have! You just gotta do it!"

"But—"

"I don't care how much it sucks!" Rainbow spat. "You wanna be a chump for the rest of your life?! Then stand up!"

Stu merely stared at her.

"Okay!" Rainbow squinted ahead as she shouted above the deafening howl. She choked briefly on flying water but fought through it. "When I give the shout, we both drag our wings again! Just like last time! Only now... try pulling up and into the center of the funnel!"

"What will that do?!"

"I'm betting just the two of us will be enough to direct the tornado's winds inward! We're gonna use this thing's own momentum against itself so it'll implode! Got it?!"

"I... I-I guess—"

"Good enough!" Rainbow Dash spread her wings wide. "You ready?!"

Stu took the deepest breath of his life. "Ready!"

"Three... two... one..." Rainbow clenched her eyes shut and pivoted her wingfeathers back. "Go—"

The sheer pain of the gesture stole the breath right out of her lungs. She had no power to scream, only writhe in agony as the tempest tore at her muscles. Nevertheless, she blocked the current as best as she could, redirecting it inward with her petite figure.

"Rnnngh... almost..." Tears evaporated as soon as they left her sockets. "Almost..." The pain intensified. Her nerves tingled, and a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors tore across her retinae. Tear-stained freckles. Lancie's gray antlers. The rosiness in her dying father's eyes. "...!"

Rainbow slipped.

"Aaaugh!" She yelped, toppling backwards.

FW-FW-FWOOSH!

"No no no no no no—!" Gnashing her teeth, Rainbow retracted her wings, contracted her body, and shot her feathers back out. "Aaaaugh!" She yanked herself to a stop, anchoring herself two tiers above the base of the tornado. "Dang it! Dang it to Tartarus!" She hyperventilated, looking all throughout the hazy rotating clouds. "Stu!" She gulped. "Stu, I lost control! I flew up at least ten meters! At this rate, I don't know if I can fly my way back to—" She looked down, and she froze.

In the dead-center of the tornado's base was Stu. The stallion sped so swiftly around the heart of the cyclone that his body had become a gray blur. All the while, a banshee scream rose up the center of the anomaly. The pegasus shouted at the top of his lungs, twisting his body to the side and using a single wing to drag at the rotating currents. Rainbow could see the vaporous trails of distorted air around his left flank. The swirling clouds around him grew thinner and thinner as he wrestled with the heart of the storm.

Rainbow blinked. Her muzzle hung agape... then clenched shut. One breath... two...

...and she coiled her wings at her side completely.

Within milliseconds, the winds overpowered her dormant body. Rainbow Dash was flung clear from the tornado.


She landed on wind-torn earth, where she tumbled to a raggedy stop across the uneven soil.

"Ooomf! Guh! Augh!" Rainbow rolled and rolled... then finally came to a quivering stand-still. Her aching body tried sitting up, only to fall back down again. "Ughhhh..."

"Rainbow!" Sharp Quill stammered from afar.

The mare's ears tickled to the sound of numerous flapping wings.

Sharp Quill and the rest of the team—battered but alive—caught up to her. The stallion sat behind her and raised her up.

"Are you in one piece? Say something?"

"...Ow." Rainbow rubbed her shoulders.

"What happened?! I thought you had it!"

"I..." Rainbow gulped, gazing up at the tornado as it drew away, growing more and more distant. "I-I guess I just... lost control."

Every pegasus around her moaned.

"Then I guess that's it," Raindrops whimpered. "We're doomed."

"Wait a minute..." Sharp Quill squinted. "...Stu Leaves is still inside that thing!"

"Then we're really doomed," another pegasus wheezed.

"No... no, just..." Rainbow Dash stumbled up to her hooves. "Just you watch." She gulped. "Stu's got this."

"Stu Leaves?"

"Shhhh!" Sharp Quill insisted.

Rainbow Dash bit her lip, watching with palpitating breaths. "Come on, Stupid..." She shook... shivered. "You've got this..." Sweat and rainwater trickled over her eyes, but she remained standing... staring... whispering. "You've got this you've got this you've got this..."

The tornado grazed a farmland and two fencelines. It continued—undaunted—towards the unmistakable skyline of Ponyville to the south.

Rainbow clenched her teeth. Her petite lungs formed the faintest of whimpers—

"Look!" a pony shouted.

Everyone held their breaths. Before their eyes, the tornado unraveled—layer after cloudy layer of smokey haze lifting skyward... and dissolving.

"He did it..."

"He did it!"

"Woooo-yeah!" Sharp Quill pumped a hoof in the air. "Go Stu!"

"Stu Leaves for the wind!"

"Omigoddess! Omigoddess! That's incredible!"

Rainbow Dash exhaled. She fell back on her haunches, shivering.

Pegasi rushed past her—some on wing and some simply galloping. The air—no longer howling with tornadic winds—was filled with cheers and shrieks of joy. Rainbow watched as the rest of the pegasi from the Everfree Meet-up joined with her team. They gathered around the site where the tornado had disappeared. Within minutes, they were lifting a stallion's body up on their shoulders in celebration.

Rainbow craned her neck, blinking curiously.

From afar, she could detect a noticeable tremor to the stallion's figure. Stu was alive—that much was certain. And from the mirth still ripe in the air, Rainbow could only assume he was in one piece as well. Through the cantering, leaping figures, she almost thought she could make out the glint of two eyes peering her way.

Another exhale, and Rainbow Dash bore a limp smile. She tried standing up, but her legs had grown numb beyond the point of recognition. So, with a groan, she flapped her aching wings... and slowly joined the ecstatic celebration.