Rainbow Typhoon

by Nonsanity

Chapter 3 - A Cut Above

CHAPTER 3

A Cut Above

"Oh my gosh!"

Never in her entire life had Dash twirled before a mirror in such delight of her reflection—until now.

"I can't believe I'm in my very own Wonderbolt uniform!" Dash squealed and jumped into the air. Her wings opened as she came down, and she caught her breath at the sight of herself in the mirror.

She spread her wings wide and struck a dramatic pose on the tailor's stand, one foreleg out as if she was flying. "Aw, yeah!"

She crossed her forelegs and leaned back, head to one side. "I make this look cool!"

She shifted to all fours, her hooves spread and stable, wings wide and chin up. "Awesome!"

Quartermane laughed at Dash's antics and obvious delight over the uniform. "It suits you perfectly, Miss Dash, if I do say so myself."

"You can! You picked out a perfect fit on the first try," Dash said, looking back at him over her shoulder and grinning.

"Ah, were I that good a tailor. No, it is a very close match for you, but the hind legs are a bit too long. However, that is easily remedied." Quartermane brandished a piece of chalk like a cigar. "If you can hold that pose for a moment, I'll just mark them."

As he bent down to chalk each leg, Dash continued to pose before the mirror. Turning her head, she watched as the light reflected from the smoked glass of her goggles. The feeling of the thin fabric covering most of her face was strange to her, and she made progressively sillier expressions as she experimented with the sensation.

Quartermane smiled at her giggles as he stood up. "All done, Miss Dash. If you'll be so kind as to remove the garment, I'll see to the alterations."

"Already?" Dash whined. She looked in the mirror longingly. "But I just got it on!"

Quartermane chuckled, putting the chalk and measuring tape back in a drawer. "It won't take much time, and then it's all yours forever. Though I'm sure you'll be complaining about how it chafes before long, just like all the others."

Dash turned to him and grinned, wings wrapping about herself possessively. "Never!"

He laughed. "I'm not sure I believe you, but I definitely won't argue the point!"

She bounded in a single wing-assisted leap from the tailor's stand to behind the changing screen and sadly went about removing her uniform.

Dash gazed at it as she slowly carried it over to Quartermane. Up close, the uniform wasn't as glamorous as it seemed from afar. It was assembled from the same hems and seams and such that Rarity was always talking about, just like any other garment, and made of something like silk. The fabric was shiny and slick but coarsely woven. She could almost see through it.

Dash wondered what it would be like if Rarity herself were to redesign it. However, at the thought of replacing this particular uniform with any other, she clutched it tightly to her chest.

Quartermane waited patiently for her to turn it over, his smile at her reluctance spreading out among his wrinkles. When she did, he carefully draped the garment over his back. "You best get to the meeting, now. Your uniform will be ready before we reach Manehatten. I promise."

Ever since Quartermane had begun measuring Dash for her uniform, she hadn't been able to stop grinning. She grinned all through the fitting. She grinned as she left the wardrobe cabin. She grinned as she walked towards the dining car to join the meeting.

I'm a Wonderbolt! If only for one show...

———

"The show is canceled."

The dining car immediately filled with tense conversation. Ponies sat or stood in every available space, Wonderbolts and crew alike, all reacting to the news with surprise, displeasure, or—in one case—delight at winning a bet. Spitfire, standing on a table in the center, waited for them to quiet down before she continued.

"You saw how bad the wind was in Haytona. Well, it's even worse in Manehatten and getting worse by the hour. We can't have a repeat of Silver Lining's accident, even though we found a replacement." Several of the nearby ponies turned to Dash and either hoof-pumped the air or grinned and nodded at her.

The praise and acceptance blew straight through her, however. She felt as thin as paper and as insubstantial as fog. The show—her show, her one chance to be a Wonderbolt here and now, not in some weakly promised future—was gone.

How can it be gone before it's even begun?

Her head was filled with static, a sea of small jagged thoughts that slipped through her grasp. The crowded dining car faded from her awareness. There may have been a discussion going on around her, perhaps some tempered arguments, but she wasn't part of it. She seemed barely a part of herself.

She had just become Wonderbolt Dash, and now Wonderbolt Dash was gone.

I was there. I was—a Wonderbolt. She couldn't even think it now. It was a hole in her mind—a hole that was sucking her in, pulling her into darkness. Her pulse pounded in her ears.

Why is it so hard to breathe?

She was falling into herself, buffeted by soft words and kind hooves as she spiraled downwards.

The darkness engulfed her.

———

Rainbow Dash stretched her forelegs languidly as she sat up in bed, the bright sunlight warming her face through an open window. I must have had a good night's sleep. I feel great.

Opening her eyes, she took in her surroundings—a train. I was going somewhere? She blinked the sleep out of her eyes. It's stopped. That must have woken me up.

Dash sat up, stretching her wings as she tried to clear her sleep-muddled head and remember where she had been going.

Spitfire found her moments later frozen in that pose: wide-eyed, tears formed in her eyes but not yet fallen. The events of the previous day had come back to her.

Canceled!

"I'm so sorry, sweetie," Spitfire said kindly, putting something down before sitting next to Dash and wrapping a wing around her. "I should have thought what that announcement would mean to you. I wondered why Soarin was so gung-ho to start the meeting before you arrived. Deliberate rudeness is not in him—I should have listened." She gave Dash a comforting squeeze. "Here—"

She picked up what she had been carrying and laid it in Dash's lap. It was Dash's uniform, fresh and folded and a perfect fit for her and her alone. "You should keep this. I think you'll need it in the future."

The future. Something in Dash solidified then, perhaps driven by her stubborn streak—a resolution that the future was hers to craft. She'd make it hers, no matter what. If she wanted to be a Wonderbolt, she'd be a Wonderbolt, and she would do it on her own terms, too.

Dash pushed the uniform back towards Spitfire. "No thanks, Captain. You can give it back to me when I've actually earned it. When I'm really a Wonderbolt. I can wait a bit longer, and I promise I won't be sitting on my wings while I wait. When the time comes, I'll be even better!"

Spitfire gazed at Dash appraisingly for a moment, her expression neutral, then she smiled and nodded slowly. "With that attitude I think your place with us—in the future—is assured." She put her hoof over Dash's. "You're full of surprises, Rainbow Dash. I'm so looking forward to working with you."

With that, Spitfire got up and moved to the cabin door. Dash picked up the uniform. "You forgot this."

"Oh," said Spitfire, looking back over her shoulder with a smile and a twinkle in her eye. "We may not have a show, but you're still one of us until the day is out. And we're needed. The Wonderbolts are going to be helping with the storm preparations. We're more than just a performance team, after all!

"Suit up, Wonderbolt Rainbow Dash. We need you."

———

The Wonderbolts stepped off the train into chaos.

Instead of pulling into the passenger station as Dash had expected, their train had arrived in a huge wooden depot with several other trains. Supplies were being offloaded from boxcars at high speed and shipped out of the building or piled up to be distributed later. Dash thought that there was far too much yelling and confusion.

She could see many boxes of food but also crates marked as medical supplies, construction equipment, and bedding. The mayor of Manehatten was evidently taking no chances. Either that, or the storm was much bigger than Dash had thought.

If only this wasn't such a mess. Dash frowned at the scene, then she chuckled. They sure could use Twilight's help!

The Wonderbolts, including Dash in her new uniform and a few pegasi from the ground crew, left the train station and took wing towards City Hall. There, they would find out how they could help prepare the city for the storm.

Dash didn't know how strong the wind had been in Haytona, but it was pretty bad here—gusty and unpredictable. It made flying, even in a straight line, quite difficult.

As she glided through the wind with the others, she discovered that the uniform changed the experience of flight. Despite its thin material, or maybe because of it, she felt as if she was sliding through melted butter. The urge to let loose and test herself and her uniform against these winds was almost overpowering, but she pushed the desire down and found her place in the formation the group adopted, heading towards their meeting with the mayor.

It wouldn't do to be late, after all.

———

The central, vaulted room at City Hall was full of ponies, some standing in groups with hooffuls of paper and arguing, others huddled around large tables covered with maps and charts. Unicorns moved small marker statues of flying observation teams around the maps while others drew in storm boundary information.

Dash could see the rough sketch of a huge curving line on the map, just off the coast. That's... big.

At an aide's signal, the mayor broke himself away from one particularly noisy group and joined the Wonderbolts in an adjacent office.

"Thank you so much for coming on such short notice," he said distractedly, levitating some papers onto his desk. He pulled out the chair but didn't sit down. Instead, he began to pace back and forth in front of the desk, tossing his unkempt gray mane out of his eyes.

"We were actually already on our way here, Mayor Faire. If you remember?" said Spitfire.

"Oh, yes-yes. Of course. The big air show." He waved a hoof about vaguely. "Other things on my mind, you see." His horn glowed as he sorted through the piles of papers, extracting a particular sheaf and floating it over to Spitfire. "The emergency team has put together a list of ways you could be of service to us—to the city of Manehatten."

Spitfire looked at the cover and frowned as she read the title. Then she held the papers back out and said, "These are plans for a new gazebo in Bridle Park, Mr. Mayor."

"Oh! Oh, yes. Um—" He again shuffled through the piles on his desk, eventually extracting a different pack. "Here they are."

Spitfire nodded after checking the cover and began flipping through the pages, passing some to the other members of her party. The mayor continued, "If there are any problems with that, there's information there on who to contact—the emergency team, that is. They're located on Baker's Street by the—Oh, what's that building called? This whole mess has gotten me so distracted."

"I know the place you mean," Spitfire said. "This all looks fine. The Wonderbolts will be happy to help Manehatten in this time of crisis."

An older mare, whom Dash vaguely recognized as the mayor's wife, entered and approached her husband. "Laissez, the head of the Fisher's Guild is here," she said in a soft voice.

"Ah, thank you, dear," he replied. He stopped his pacing and turned back to Spitfire, grabbing her hoof and shaking it vigorously. "Thank you again for coming at such short notice. The city of Manehatten is forever in your debt." Then he followed his wife out into the main hall without a backwards glance.

"Ah think somepony is in a bit over his elected head," drawled Lightning Streak, frowning after the mayor.

"Hush, Lightning," reprimanded the captain quietly, looking down at the papers in her hoof. "If these reports are right, there hasn't been a storm like this in all of Equestria's history. If he's in over his head, it's not from being too short, it's for there being far too much water for anypony to tread."

———

Dash was assigned to communications, meaning she had to deliver emergency plans all around Manehatten. She was given first pick of destinations since she wasn't a regular visitor. She chose a few places she knew from previous trips and a few she was fairly certain she could find easily from landmarks.

As she, Lightning Streak, and High Winds flew to the Baker's Street building to pick up copies of the plans, she asked the question that had been playing on her mind all morning. "With such a nasty storm coming, why aren't we out trying to break it up like we do back home? Like with the rogue storms that come out of the Everfree Forest."

"Exactly because it's such a nasty storm, darlin'," said Lightning, banking to the right as he followed the streets below. "Rare too. Hasn't been one like it in centuries. You saw the size of it on the maps?"

"Yeah. But just because it's big doesn't mean we can't break it up. It'll just take longer."

"This isn't just a big storm," said High Winds in a quiet voice. As they turned to follow another street below, Dash found herself impressed by how smooth and steady Windy's flying was, despite the almost random gusts they were flying through. "It's organized."

Dash's incredulous expression was hidden by the uniform, but disbelief colored her voice as she said, "An organized storm? Come on! Pull the other hoof."

"It's true. The entire storm is spinning," High Winds said, adjusting her wing angle rapidly in response to another sudden gust that buffeted them, keeping herself perfectly level. "The whole thing is rotating about its center. That's why the winds are so very strong. Add in the rain, and this hurricane is going to do... a lot of damage," she said, frowning, just as they landed in front of an old stone building.

Dash followed the others up the marble steps, glancing above at the darkening sky as she felt the first drops of rain splatter against her wing feathers.

———

They all got stormproof saddlebags with packets of orders and instructions, and they split up in the street, each headed for their first destination. Dash was worried she wouldn't be able to see through her rain-speckled goggles, but she discovered that they stayed clear when she was flying, swept clean by the wind.

As she flew, she tried to grasp the idea of a storm that big spinning like a top. It seemed unbelievable. Oh, she'd made little clouds spin hundreds of times, and she'd joined water-lifting tornado teams on several occasions. She'd even organized the last one in Ponyville.

So she knew something about spinning, but the thought of all that cloud and rain and wind, miles and miles and miles across, spinning! It was mind-boggling. It was no wonder nothing was being done to stop it. Nothing could be done.

How could you possibly stop something like that?

And yet, as Dash flew on through the steadily increasing rain, making her drop-offs while being tossed about by sudden downdrafts and wind shear, she couldn't help chafing at the thought of just... cowering before a storm. She wasn't Fluttershy, scared at a measly clap of thunder. She was Rainbow Dash!

Rainbow Dash the Wonderbolt! She cracked a self-deprecating grin. If only for today.

She pushed those thoughts from her mind and allowed herself the small luxury of a few barrel rolls and loop-the-loops between stops until the increasing wind made that too difficult. She marveled at how the suit helped her slice through the air and rain more easily than ever before. I may have to get Rarity to make me something like this when I get home—if I can convince her not to add unaerodynamic frills and frou-frou.

The skies were empty of other pegasi. The wind was probably too much for most of them to handle, she thought. As her wings pressed down on the bumpy and turbulent air, she could feel the small and rapid adjustments she unconsciously made to the shape and spread of her feathers. Her talent and skill gave her an edge in this weather, an ability that made her special and gave her a fierce pride that filled her chest and bolstered her spirits.

I can do more than just stunts. I can make a difference.

———

This time, Dash's last stop was the public side of train station, where the telegraph office was. She had a larger package for them, as they would be coordinating with the outlying villages and towns along the rail lines.

The office was its own form of organized chaos, with clerks trotting back and forth between long paper-strewn tables, stacks of documents floating alongside or balanced on their well-practiced backs. Three unicorns operated the telegraph gear and were fed paper messages for transmission, sending the words up and down the lines. The steady tap-t-tap of their keys mixed with the more mechanical clattering of a ticker tape machine recording the incoming messages.

Dash stood there in the middle of the noise and bustle in her crisp new uniform, mane and tail soaked and wind-tousled, dripping rainwater from her wings. She pushed up her goggles and looked around for the stationmaster or chief telegrapher. The flow of busy ponies respectfully parted around her and the puddle she was creating on the floor.

Nopony complained about the mess.

It's the uniform, she thought. Everypony respects the Wonderbolts and all they do for Equestria. She found herself standing a little straighter, feeling a little prouder to be representing them—to almost be one of them.

Dash never would have thought her desire to wear this suit for real could have been any stronger, but now it wasn't just about being the star of a show or commanding respect because of something she was wearing. In that moment, standing there dripping wet and proud, it was all about being a Wonderbolt.

The clothes didn't make a Wonderbolt. The flying didn't even make a Wonderbolt. What made a pony a Wonderbolt was what they did, how they chose to act, how much responsibility they accepted on behalf of their fellow ponies because they had the ability to follow through.

You don't become a Wonderbolt for yourself, you do it for your friends and loved ones!

This sudden realization filled Dash with such resolve and energy she nearly bounced as she closed in on the now-identified stationmaster to deliver her papers.

An energy that was suddenly replaced with icy cold dread when he told her that the very train her friends were on—at her invitation—was on a headlong course towards disaster.

———

Comments

[WonderDash]

Yeah

[Angel_Blaze]

Soooo wasn't expecting the cancelling of the show! You got me there! HAH!

[SolidFire]

This keeps on getting better and better! Keep up the excellent writing and I will keep on reading!

[statoose]

Oh man, things are getting real now.

My only big problem with this story is the pacing. The constant page breaks give the scenes a disconnected feeling, like we're just stepping from one part of the story to the next, rather than flowing through it. There needs to be more fluff.

Other than that, this is getting interesting, and you have my attention!

[Cobalt Shock]

GAAAAAAAAAAAASSSPPP!!!!!!!

[Widow Peak]

Shit is about to hit the fan.

Or the hurriacane, for that matter.

[Rainbow sparkle1]

Why doesn’t this have a comedy tag?

[Nonsanity]

9762954
Hmmm. I like to add a little humor in everything I write, but it wasn’t the focus of the story. In other words, it isn’t always funny. :)

[RushingWind-01]

Nice. I wonder how the story goes on... :)