Thundering Fear

by touileasaso

Blooming Thunders

The situation wasn't faring any better inside the buildings that everyone took shelter inside of to hide from the storm. As the lightning grew stronger, the more panicked everypony was, the foals crying in fear as their parents tried to unsuccessfully calm them down, some were hiding in fear under tables, couches and anything else they could get under while other active ones tried to reinforce the barriers with their own magic and piling up anything that they could find against the barriers in hopes that it would help.

Spike looked around in worry as he saw the scared ponies running here and there. Next to him were Octavia, and Auntie and Uncle who were holding close to them a frightened Tangerine. While the foals were kept a close eye on earlier, it was agreed that during the storm that they should all be with their family in this dire time.

"Mother...father...are we going to be okay...?" whimpered the green-maned filly.

"Not to worry, my sweet little citrus seed." Sherbet spoke soothingly to her daughter. "We're safe in here."

"That's right, Tangerine." Mosely pitched in. "I'm certain that our friends have everything under control."

Just after the stallion said this, another strike of lightning hit the barrier, making it flash and scare everypony inside. Tangerine huddled even closer to her parents as they tried to comfort her. Spike, after getting his bearing from the lightning strike, took a closer look at their barrier. It was holding up for now, but how much more of a beating could it take before it breaks? He partly hoped that they wouldn't find out. But there was something else that had him worried about the barrier...

"Hey guys? Don't you think it's weird how lightning keeps hitting that barrier?" Spike asked in concern.

"Indeed. It's as if the storm is deliberately trying to destroy the barrier." Octavia nodded in agreement.

"But is that even possible? A storm that has a will of its own?" Sherbet asked.

"I truly hope that there is no such thing."

Looking once again to the barrier, Spike saw that the lightning strikes were aiming for the stained frame of him that Trixie had made. He couldn't help but be a little peeved that his awesome image was being destroyed by the storm. If that storm could think like Auntie suggested, it had a sick sense of humor by attacking the superhero barrier.

Suddenly, everypony turned their heads to see the unicorn team that was on the roof come rushing down the stairs and began to reinforce the barriers with their magic.

"Twilight? Trixie? What's going on?" Spike asked them. "Why aren't you guys up on the roof? Shouldn't you be helping the pegasi up there?"

Twilight furrowed her brow in concern. She knew that she had to tell him the truth but she didn't want to cause a panic among the ponies inside the building, there's no telling what a panicked pony could do in a situation like this.

"Trixie, I'll leave you in charge for a while, I'll brief the others about this." Twilight told the blue unicorn.

"But of course! Your position is in reliable hooves, Twilight Sparkle!" Trixie responded with her usual flair, although this time it was noticeably a bit shaken, which was understandable considering what they had learned earlier.

After leaving the showmare with the other unicorns, Twilight led Spike to her friends and took a seat next to Sherbet.

"Twilight, is something the matter? Is there a reason the unicorns have all come down here?" Sherbet asked her.

"Everypony..." Twilight began, her face grimly serious. "What I'm about to say can not be known to anypony around us. Is there anywhere private we can discuss this?"

"My office should be away from eyes and ears, we can speak there." Mosely suggested.

Nodding, Twilight followed him with the others as she noticed the curious and suspicious looks from the ponies inside the building. For everypony's sake, she truly hoped that no one found out about the recent weather report.

---

Honey grit her teeth as her wings were beating rapidly against the strong current of wind blowing in her face.

'When they said that the wind was strong, they weren't joking.' Honey Do thought. But she couldn't let us wind stop her now, not when Blossomforth and everypony else with her needed to be warned about the storm's recently revealed danger.

As Honey passed by the Opera House, she noticed a big splint of wood flying directly at her and it took great effort to dodge it due to the wind pushing against her. Unfortunately, this distraction was enough for Honey to lose her momentum and was sent flying back screaming from the strong gust of the storm. Desperate, she stretched her forelegs out in hopes to grab hold of anything to save herself. This proved fruitful when she managed to latch onto the bars of a fire escape ladder.

Honey pulled herself up to the fire escape and slowly but steadily climbed her way up to the top of the building. Still hanging on the railings for safety, Honey took this chance to see how much further she had left to go to reach Blossomforth.

"I'm almost there..." Honey muttered. Not much further until she could save them, but there was one problem that was literally in her face. "But how am I supposed to get there with all this wind!? It'll blow me all the way back to Corona Park!"

As if answering her problems, a long stray piece of rope blown by the wind smacked her on the head and wrapped itself on the railing she was supporting herself on. Recalling the many times she used whips in her adventures, she gave a contemplative look to the rope beside her.

"I suppose it's worth a shot." Honey shrugged.

After a brief moment, with one end of her rope tied into a lasso, something she learned from the Apple Family Reunion, and the other end tied around her waist, Honey took a running start and jumped to fly once more against the wind. Whenever she felt that the wind would blow her away again, Honey made the motions of whipping the rope backward and then forward onto another building. The rope around her waist kept her from being blown away, and Honey began climbing toward the building with the rope and would repeat this method until she could reach Blossomforth.

---

Blossomforth flinched as she heard another lightning strike in the distance while working on dissolving her portion of the storm cloud. While she was expecting to go through some difficulties with this concerning her astraphobia, they weren't as extreme as she was expecting them to be. But that could be because the lightning strikes were so far away for the moment and Blossomforth suspects that her anxiety would worsen if the thunder strikes were any closer to her. If they were, she hoped that she could keep it together when the lightning strikes.

"Everypony stay alert!" Soarin shouted to all of the pegasi. "Just because we're on the outer sections of the cumulonimbus cloud doesn't mean that we'll have a walk in the park! We'll have our fair share of problems with some stray static running through the cloud! Remember to keep an eye out for sparks!"

"Yes captain!" Thunderlane shouted while kicking away a dark lump from the cloud.

Blossomforth looked to where the unicorns' magic beam shot into the cloud some minutes ago, and was concerned when she saw that there wasn't much of a difference than last time.

'Maybe it just looks that way from here?' she hoped.

Meanwhile, a female pegasus with blond mane and red fur proceeded to pull away a lump from the storm cloud, only to find that it wouldn't budge no matter how hard she tried to pull.

"Hey, a little help here?" Misty Breeze cried.

"C'mon Misty, don't tell me that little guy is stronger than you." chuckled a stallion beside her, causing her to frown at him.

"I'm serious! This part of the cloud won't come off!"

"Don't be like that! Look, all you have to do is..." the stallion went, only to find that her piece of cloud was indeed stuck like bubble gum on the cloud. No matter how hard he pulled, it stood firm.

"See, what did I tell you!?" Misty snapped at him.

"Okay, you were right!" he conceded with a sigh. "But how does this even make sense?"

"How am I supposed to know!?"

While the unaware pegasi were continuing their work, short but quick sparks zipped through the clouds towards them...

"Now this is strange..." Soarin muttered as he observed the lump of cloud the two pegasi were trying to pull. "The water shouldn't be that heavy over here."

"It's not just them, sir! Many others are having similar problems!" spoke a pegasus beside him.

Indeed, they were all having difficulties trying to pry off their lumps of cloud from the storm cloud. This got the lieutenant even more concerned. Were Spitfire and Fleetfoot's teams having the same problem?

As his team was unsuccessfully trying to rip away their piece of cloud, lightning began to strike again. Not only was it closer but it was also noticeably louder. Blossomforth's eyes widened when she both saw and heard the lightning in front of her. The terrible memories on that night came back to haunt her...the memories that gave her nightmares...

"SOMEPONY HELP ME!!!"

Blossomforth quickly flew past many bewildered pegasi, screaming, blindly trying to escape her fear. The constant loud rumbling behind her only worsened her thoughts. She had to escape. She couldn't bear to go through anything like that again. Blossomforth only managed to stop when she felt her head collide into someone's chest and hold her back. She thrashed her limbs wildly while screaming, attempting to escape whoever caught her.

"Blossom, hey! Easy! Calm down! I know that sounds hard, but just listen to me!"

Blossomforth slowly but surely stopped her flailing when she recognized that it was Thunderlane who caught her. Lifting her head up, she saw him looking worried at her.

"So, have you calmed down a bit?" he asked in concern. Blossomforth could only manage a weak nod. "I know that you're scared. We're all scared. But as long as we're all here, there's nothing to be scared of. So don't worry. I'll look out for you." Thunderlane smiled a bit at her. "And that's a gentlecolt's promise." Hearing this, Blossomforth began sniffling, much to his concern. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"It's just that...you, looking out for me...I appreciate it, but I'm scared that I'll always be seen as the pony who always needs help from others." she explained. "No matter how hard I try, I always need help for something. I want ponies to rely on me, but how can I do that when I always let my mind wander...?" Blossomforth struggled to hold back her tears. "I try my best, but it's never enough..."

"So? What's wrong with needing help?" Thunderlane bluntly asked. "You can't always do everything by yourself, so what's the harm in asking for a hoof? The fact that other ponies actually want to help you means that they care about you."

Blossomforth slightly dropped her jaw in realization from the black pegasus' words. She thought back from the times like Operation: Rainfall and the Best Young Fliers Competition in Cloudsdale, and she saw that one thing they all had in common was that all of her friends were willing to help her no matter what.

"I...never thought of it that way before..." Blossomforth admitted, her cheeks turning red. "Thank you Thunderlane. I think that was just what I needed to hear."

"No worries." Thunderlane smiled. "Just doing what I can to help fragile mares." His face then dropped when he realized what he just said. "Uh, not that I'm saying you're fragile or anything, even if you look like it, which you're not, I just..."

As Thunderlane was trying to correct his blunder, Blossomforth couldn't help but giggle at his honest mistake. She had now learned to like his innocent mix-ups.

"EVERYPONY LISTEN UP!"

Their sudden attention was now on a tan pegasus who had just arrived on the scene.

"Is that Daring Do?" asked a surprised Thunderlane. "She's actually here?"

"Miss Do, is there a reason why you're here?" Soarin asked in concern.

Honey hovered to a halt in front of the senior Wonderbolt. "I don't have time to explain! You need to get all of your trainees and volunteers out to safety now!"

"Hey, that's not fair!" protested one of the trainees. "Just because we're beginners doesn't mean that we can't hold out on our own! We can handle this storm just fine!" Many of the other recruits shouted in agreement with him.

"You don't understand! This has nothing to do with skill!" Honey insisted. "You all need to withdraw right this instant before it's too late!"

"Yeah? Too late for what?"

His answer came from a lightning bolt that struck between them, followed by many others surrounding the group. All the pegasi volunteers began to panic, frantically flying around to try and look for shelter from the thunder strikes as the Wonderbolts attempt to unsuccessfully calm them down.

But the one pegasus who had the worst of it all was Blossomforth, tightly holding onto Thunderlane, screaming at him to get her out of here. Her wings were locked up from fear, so she was unable to fly. All of her unpleasant memories from the trip she was at as a filly came flooding back to her. All the tremors she heard and felt, the flash of thunder before her eyes, the loud noise afterwards,the fear of being struck by lightning...it was all too much for the weather cadet to handle all at once.

"GET ME OUT! GET ME OUT OF HERE NOW!" Blossomforth screamed, her eyes shut tight.

"Blossomforth, it's all right!" came the voice of Honey Do. "We're all inside the park manager's office! We're safe here!"

The trembling mare slowly opened her eyes, and saw that every Wonderbolt and volunteer had managed to escape inside the office. Everypony was shouting in panic, wondering what had just happened. Although still afraid, she calmed down a little now that she was indoors.

"Miss Do, now that we're all relatively safe from the storm would you please tell us what you have to say?" Soarin asked the explorer.

Daring reached into her satchel and pulled out the weather report. "The Weather Factory studied the components of this storm and have confirmed that it has many traces of Chaos Magic from the Everfree Forest."

"What!? The Everfree!?"

"How are we supposed to fight back against this!?"

"We don't stand a chance!"

"Manehattan is doomed!"

Every Wonderbolt and volunteer shouted in fear and panic, their morale plummeting downwards.

"BUT!" Honey interjected, interrupting them before things got out of hoof. "We do have a plan against this new threat!"

"Really? What is it?" asked one of the volunteers, hope slowly gathering the room.

Daring paused, certain that this new plan would not be popular among them. But she knew that they had to be told. "From what we have learned, those lightning strikes are literally Chaos Magic striking down at Manehattan, doing whatever it can to destroy the city as much as possible before it's finished."

"So are you saying that if the lightning strikes stop, so does the storm?" Soarin questioned, catching on to the plan.

"Exactly." Daring nodded. "So our new course of action is to force the lightning out of the storm cloud to turn this chaotic storm into a regular storm."

"Okay, so how are we supposed to do that?"

Honey grimaced before speaking, knowing that this is where it would get ugly. "...we have to phsically eject the thunder from the cloud ourselves."

And with that, the slight glimmer of hope that anyone had changed to disbelief.

"You want us to go up there!? Are you serious!?" exclaimed one of the volunteers in shock.

"No, I'm here to call you all off the plan." Honey clarified. "Most of you are inexperienced in dealing with situations like this, so you're staying put until we manage to conquer this storm."

While most were relieved to not having to participate in this dangerous plan, they were disappointed that there was nothing else that they could do. Thunderlane being one of those ponies judging from his frown.

"So what are we supposed to do now? Just stay here like foals while everypony else works their flanks off to protect Manehattan?" Thunderlane shot at Daring, not pleased at having to stay out. "Seriously?"

"It's for your safety!" Daring shot back at him. "Just look out there! Do you really think you could stop that storm all by yourself?"

"Actually, I could." Thunderlane replied, much to the shock of everyone in the office. "And I'm not just blowing hot air. You see my cutie mark?" He gestured to the dark cloud and lightning image on his flank. "I've earned this when I was subduing a storm at Ponyville. I know how storms work, and I know how to maneuver around them."

"But this isn't a normal storm!" Honey cried out in frustration. "Those lightning strikes will be aiming directly for you when you try to approach the cloud! Your shock suit can only take so much!"

"Maybe you're right." he admitted. "But I'd still rather be out there protecting Manehattan rather than stay in this crummy office and do nothing." The black pegasus stood up and began walking to the door. "And that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"Thunderlane, wait!" Blossomforth cried out to him. She didn't want him to get hurt out there!

"Stay here, Blossom. You'll be safe here." he softly told her.

Before the trainee could reach the door both Soarin and Daring blocked it from him, the former narrowing his his at the black pegasus.

"Thunderlane, you're staying here along with everypony else until the storm clears over." Soarin commanded in a stern voice, something rare for the usually laid-back Wonderbolt. "That's an order."

Thunderlane glanced to the side before facing his superior. "Sorry lieutenant. But this is the one time I can't follow orders." Having said that, he rushed to his left, opened the window and flied out to face the storm.

"Thunderlane, no!!" Blossomforth shouted, running up to the window. "Come back! Come back!"

Her only answer was a lightning strike, causing her to retreat back inside the office, shivering under a table. Honey quickly closed the window and went over to try and calm her friend.

"Oh this is just wonderful..." Soarin muttered. "Could this situation possibly be any worse?"

---

Back at the buildings everypony were taking shelter in, the exhausted unicorns were trying to keep the barriers as stable as possible, but with their low mana and fatigue, it proved to be very difficult. Not even the most determined ones seemed to be making any improvements on the barriers. Even worse, ponies began demanding to know what was happening, why the unicorns were helping inside the building and not on the roof like originally planned.

Twilight gulped nervously at the crowd of impatient ponies. Just how was one supposed to break dire news like this to them? Was it even the right choice to tell them now, or was it better to keep quiet to prevent worse pandemonium?

"Just what is going on here!? We have the right to know!"

"Just what are you hiding from us!?"

"Start talking already! We know that there's something screwy here!"

"Well..." Twilight started, trying to find the right words to say. "There has been a slight change of plans regarding the position of the unicorns for this operation. It was decided that it would be best for us to stay here to reinforce the barriers after we have witnessed just how powerful the lightning strikes really are."

"I call horseapples on that!" shouted a mare from the back. "We're not dumb! What is really going on!?"

The nervous Twilight took a step back from the accuser. How was she going to get herself out of this now?

As she tried to think of something to reassure the rowdy crowd, Auntie Orange stepped between her and them, a professional tone in her voice. "Pardon me for interrupting but as you can all see, the unicorns are hard at work in trying to keep the barriers up, the only thing that is standing between us and the thunderstorm outside to protect us from it. So I implore that you give these unicorns the space they need and not to interrupt them, lest they make a critical mistake from your constant attacks."

The earth pony she had spoken to, most likely the one who was the leader of the crowd, stared hard for a few moments before sighing. "Fine, we'll leave the unicorns to do their job. But we'd better get some answers soon! We're all tired of being in the dark like this!"

As soon as the crowd disperses, Twilight let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Auntie. I really needed somepony to save me from them."

"But of course dearie." Sherbet nodded. "But I believe now he have to be cautious of them now more than ever."

"Bitter ponies are not interested in what you say, but what you hide." Octavia quoted. "Such is the flow of fear."

"But how are we gonna make them relax?" Spike asked. "I can't think of anything that would work on them!"

"Let's hope that Twilight's plan works. Because I don't know how long all of the unicorns can keep this up." Trixie said dropping her usual third-pony speak, likely from the stress and fear.

"I hope so too, Trixie." Twilight frowned in worry. "I also hope that Spitfire and the other pegasi are okay out in that storm..."

---

Spitfire gritted her teeth against the wind as she kicked away another lightning bolt that was headed straight at her. Since this plan was very risky, she allowed only the most experienced of Wonderbolts and fliers to participate. In the beginning, the plan seemed to work as the constantthunder strikes have decreased a little bit from all their work, giving them some hope. But later, it was as if the storm had caught on to their plan, and started to strike lightning away from them, with them now facing rogue winds in exchange.

"Captain, what do we do now!?" Fleetfoot frantically asked her. "We can't chase after all the lightning strikes all at once! They're everywhere!"

"Manehattan is relying on us to protect it! We have to keep trying no matter what!" Spitfire persisted. "Everypony follow me! No one split up, it's too dangerous!"

So Spitfire led them to where one cluster of lightning strikes were, with the rest of pegasi, tired but determined all the same, following her.

'Soarin, I hope you came up with something on your end!" Spitfire thought in worry.

---

Daring Do, now clad in her own shock suit, was about to fly off in the sky to both help stop the storm and stop Thunderlane from his reckless behavior. She was at the front door with Soarin to see her off.

"Are you sure you can't come with me?" Honey asked the Wonderbolt.

"I want to come with you, but someone has to stay here to look after these pegasi to keep them calm." Soarin explained. "I just hope that Thunderlane isn't hurt out there..."

"Not to worry, Soarin! If he is as good as you say, I'll be sure to bring him back in one piece!" Honey assured him.

"Daring?" Blossomforth slowly walked up to her friend. "Please be careful out there."

"Of course." Daring smiled reassuringly. "I promise that I won't let even one bolt of lightning strike me." After saying that, she opened the door and flew upwards. Soarin immediately closed the door after Honey left and turned to face the others.

"Listen up, I know that things look very bad, but we all have expert fliers on our side fighting against that storm who know what to do. And as long as you're in this office you're safe, so you have nothing to worry about."

The Wonderbolt's words of comfort were little effective for his group, even though they tried to calm themselves. The one who had it the worst was Blossomforth, angry at herself for being a coward again and letting others do everything while she was cowering in fear. She hated feeling so helpless like this, hated having Thunderlane go out alone to confront the storm. Why did she have to fear lightning so much? It would've been so much easier if she wasn't afraid at all.

Blossomforth sadly looked outside the window. She saw a tree, it's leaves rustling and branches shaking from the wind. But when she looked under it, her eyes widened. It was the Middlemist Red she had found earlier with Thunderlane. Despite all the heavy rain, harsh winds and thunder, it was still standing upright. It was fighting against the storm despite all odds.

Upon seeing the flower fight so hard to survive, Blossomforth realized something: even the most fragile of ponies have the strength to overcome any hardships. If that seemingly frail flower could withstand the storm, what's to say that the ponies can't either. Closing her eyes to take a deep breath, she opened them with a steely gaze of determination. She still had her part to play in this. They all have.

"Soarin?" Blossomforth called to the Wonderbolt. "We have to go back out there again. We have to stop that storm."

Everypony in the office, especially Soarin, were staring at her in complete and utter shock. Not just because of what she had just said, but the face that the most insecure of ponies flat-out said for them all to continue fighting.

"No Blossomforth! I can"t do that!" Soarin shook his head fervently. "I have to think of everypony's safety here! Unlike Fleetfoot Spitfire's group, they're less experienced in flying! They could get themselves seriously hurt!"

"But it's our duty to protect Manehattan too!" Blossomforth cried out. "Don't you want to do whatever you can to stop that storm no matter what?"

"Of course I do! But I also want to keep you all safe!"

"Soarin, I knew the risks when I volunteered for this. We all did. This is our home, and we want to protect it with everything we have!"

"You know what? Blossomforth's right!" said Candy Floss, the pegasus that warned her friends of the storm. "I didn't sign up for this just to stay crying and feeling sorry for myself in here!"

"Yeah, who cares about some loose lightning strikes? That's nothing compared to what's on the line! Our city and our home!" Shouted a stallion on agreement.

"Thunderlane shouldn't be alone out there! We need to have his back!"

Soon, everypony that was dispirited before were now getting their fight back, willing to go back out despite the danger. Soarin was both stunned and impressed at the sight. Now they were all standing straight with determined grins, ready to face the onslaught of the storm together.

"You said so yourself: nopony flies alone. That's the Wonderbolt way." Blossomforth reminded him.

Soarin was silent for a moment before, he looked up smiling. "All right, you convinced me. We'll go back out there together. None of us should be staying here when we have an important job to do."

Everypony cheered as they went out the door, flying in groups to take on the storm. Blossomforth flew together with Soarin and Candy Floss. She was scared, she wasn't going to deny that, but her will to stop the storm from destroying their Manehattan was now stronger than her fear. And she would not let her fear win. Not anymore.

Comments

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Thunderlane is awesome. That is all. :D

[Lord King Cocoon]

Looking once again to the barrier, Spike saw that the lightning strikes were aiming for the stained frame of him that Trixie had made. He couldn't help but be a little peeved that his awesome image was being destroyed by the storm. If that storm could think like Auntie suggested, it had a sick sense of humor by attacking the superhero barrier.

Spike just can't catch a break, can he?

"Oh this is just wonderful..." Soarin muttered. "Could this situation possibly be any worse?"

Rainbow Dash would definitely be jealous.

I would've had the speech include another thought...
Soarin: "Of course I do! But I also want to keep you all safe!"
Blossomforth: "But the fewer pegasi that are out there fighting the storm, the less likely you will be able to keep us all safe."

Also, will this story be continued soon?