Chapter 2
From the journal of Gloomy August—
It was easier than I thought to leave home. All I had to do was spread my wings and fly away, the easiest thing in the world for a pegasus to do. The wind took me, lifted me, and I rose on updrafts. I watched Twilight Sparkle and Ponyville grow smaller and smaller. After everything was so small that I could no longer make out the little details, I was hit by one of the big gusts of wind that exist in the upper level atmosphere. Those dangerous gusts that we’re warned about in school. I had one of those hit me and WHOOSH! I was off, being blown to the north and east, with Canterlot off towards my right. I’m just a little pegasus mare and the wind had its way with me. I was a leaf on the wind.
I had traveled several hundred miles in the span of just a few hours. I don’t know how far, or how fast I was going, but I found myself flying over the Unicorn Range with Canterlot now behind me, shrinking away, the distant city getting smaller and smaller.
Off in the distance, I saw a wall of thunderheads blowing in. Big, bossy looking thunderheads. The dangerous types. Feral clouds, probably blown in from off of the ocean. I dipped a bit, following my instincts, and sure enough, once dropped in altitude, the wind below me was blowing eastward, towards Canterlot behind me. The strong headwind was warm. That’s never a good sign. The warm wet air pushed ahead of the storm was colliding with the cold, frigid air above it, which was blowing in the other direction.
I have to confess, I was scared. The storm was coming right for me, and I suppose I should have just let the wind blow me back to Canterlot, but I turned my nose upwards, gained elevation, and let the wind above blow me towards the storm. With luck, I would blow over the top of the storm and everything would be okay.
At least, that had been the plan. Things turned out very differently. For the first time in my life, I was in danger of dying, for realsies. But I couldn’t fly away. Something inside of me would not let me fly away, and I flew into the very heart of the storm.
I’m glad I did. I still don’t know how I feel after everything that happened. I’m still trying to sort it all out. I learned that a single pegasus can make a difference. I also learned that I am brave. I did not know that I was brave, so this is a big deal for me. It is a dangerous business going out your door and having an adventure, stuff happens!
Looking down, Gloomy’s sharp eyes spotted feral tornadoes tearing over the fertile farmland. Something inside of her burned like a cherry red coal when she saw them. The storm was approaching and the wild tornadoes surged forwards as the heralds of impending doom.
Far, far beneath her, so far down that Gloomy had trouble seeing, a massive tornado traveled over a river that trickled out of a lake. She squinted, seeing movement, and watched as the river became wider and wider and the fertile farmland began to flood. Once the tornado had passed, it was easier to see what had happened. A dam holding back the water and forming a reservoir was now gone, obliterated by the tornado. Other twisters were converging on the area. The big storm blowing inland was going to hit this area as it was flooding. Night would be falling soon.
Gloomy realised that she had just flown into a disaster. She hovered, not knowing what to do, and covered her mouth with her hoof as her face scrunched into a frown of concentration. She took stock of the world around her. There wasn’t much high ground. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to go, no place to seek shelter from what was certain to be an epic flood. She glanced at the coming storm. It was miles wide, stretching out from the mountains off to the south, and as far as she could see to the north. It was miles wide, a wall of rainclouds. The Unicorn Range down below was a valley, one of the most fertile patches of earth in Equestria, if not the world.
Gloomy, who realised that she was just one pegasus, didn’t know what she could do in the eye of such a big, powerful storm and the dreadful disaster floating below. What could just one pegasus do? Gloomy didn’t know. A powerful gust of air hit her and she had to flap her wings very hard to keep from being blown away. There was a time to let the wind have its way with you, but now was not the time.
“One pegasus can do a lot more than no pegasus can do,” Gloomy said to herself as she hovered. She reached down around her neck, grabbed her weather goggles, and slid them up over her eyes. Dipping her head downwards, Gloomy August dove down to face the storm.
The enormity of her task was overwhelming for Gloomy. How does one save ponies from a natural disaster? There was nowhere to take them, nowhere to go. There were farmhouses dotting the landscape. Buffeted by the high winds, Gloomy could see the floodwaters rising; for now, it was only a narrow patch of land in the center of the valley. Ponies were outrunning the water and trying to head for higher ground.
There was no higher ground for as far as Gloomy could see. She watched a whirling vortex go right for a farmhouse. Cringing, hoping that the ponies living there had fled, the house was ripped apart as she watched, leaving Gloomy feeling very weak and powerless. It was getting harder to keep flying in the storm. It was impossible to know what to do, but she couldn’t just fly away.
There had to be something she could do. An icy wind ruffled her feathers and Gloomy watched as the impending doom of the storm crept closer, a wall of wind, rain, and water. She thought about trying some cloud busting, but she was all alone; there were far too many clouds to bust and she didn’t see any other pegasi about.
All it seemed she could do was to hover defiant in the face of the oncoming storm.
But that wasn’t enough. Gloomy had to do more. She had to do something.
Brave, resolute, Gloomy August let the storm swallow her just as it was doing to everypony else. Perhaps being blown around would show her what to do. Maybe being in the thick of it would show her the way.
It was impossible to tell if it was night or day. It was just dark. The sun was completely blocked off. Gloomy had to fight against the wind. She dodged between swirling tornadoes and was soaked by the wall of rain that poured down from the back clouds that blotted out the sun. Perhaps this was a bad idea, but Gloomy was still convinced that she could help out somehow. She just needed to be patient and wait for the opportunity to present itself.
She swooped low, flying where the storm was the strongest, trying to avoid the bully twisters rampaging about. It was hailing too. The stones stung when they pelted her. Her pith helmet saved her tender head and her ears. Nothing stung quite so much as one hundred mile per hour hailstones hitting you right in the ear.
Except for maybe one hundred mile per hour hailstones hitting your backside. Ouch!
It was now dark and difficult to see. Gloomy flew low, over a farmhouse, looking around, trying to listen for voices over the rushing wind. Nothing here, at least nothing that she could hear. Lightning flashed and thunder crashed. There were faces in the black clouds, demon faces. Gloomy assured herself that these were just optical whatchamacallits, delusions? Something. Scary faces were not natural phenomenon in clouds. She was almost pushed into a grain silo by a particularly strong, stiff wind that gusted. Below her was frothing white capped water.
As the wind carried her to another farmhouse, this one some distance away from the first, she heard faint cries over the wind. Gloomy, who found new strength, had to fly into a headwind to be able to investigate. The wind shifted, now hitting her from her right side, and she had to struggle to correct her course.
There was a small farmhouse. The water was up to the windows. It was difficult to see anything in the dark. There were only faint outlines, dim shapes, a suggestion of what was there and what one could see.
“Help!”
Squinting through her goggles, Gloomy battled the wind until she reached the roof where she saw four figures engaged in a battle to keep standing. She landed, a hazardous affair, and tried to keep from being blown away. She leaned into the wind, hearing frantic shouts, not knowing what to do, and not willing to admit that this had been a bad idea.
On the roof there was one earth pony mare, one unicorn stallion, and two foals. Both colts. Gloomy, who was never very good at math, which was the primary reason why she was a Cloud Specialist, First Class and not a Weather Captain like Rainbow Dash, tried to add up the situation. Four ponies plus one Gloomy equals… what exactly?
“Can you carry our foals to safety?” The stallion asked, shouting to be heard over the wind. One of his colts was clinging to his leg, the other clung to what was certain to be his mother.
Safety? What safety? There was no high ground, there was nowhere to go. There was no shelter. There was no conceivable place to go carrying two foals to get them to safety. There was only the mother of all storms, rising flood waters, and rampaging tornadoes all around.
“Sure thing!” Gloomy replied in her unflappable, almost cheeky, cheerful manner. There had to be some hope somewhere, or so Gloomy reasoned. These parents needed hope. So did the foals, both of them. She wasn’t quite sure what the parents would do. She hoped that they could swim.
The house gave a shudder as more flood water hammered at the walls. There was a creak from the house that was loud enough to be heard over the roaring demon wind. Gloomy rose into a hover, her powerful wings flapping hard, and she nodded while holding out her forelegs.
A flying tree zoomed overhead, causing Gloomy’s nethers to clench. Not getting hit by a flying tree was high upon her list of priorities. The unicorn’s horn glowed and the two foals were swept up into the air, held in magic. Gloomy watched through wet, rain spattered goggles as the earth pony mares kissed her foals, perhaps for the last time, and then the unicorn stallion did the same.
One pegasus is better than no pegasus, Gloomy thought to herself as she took the two foals into her forelegs and squeezed them tight to her barrel. She couldn’t wave, not while holding the two foals, so she gave a final respectful nod to the parents.
“We love you!” the mare shouted.
A powerful wind gusted, too powerful, and Gloomy could not fight it; she had to go with it, going where the wind took her. As she was shoved along, she heard the snapping wood sound of the house collapsing, ripped apart by water and wind. There was no point in turning back now.
She ducked as another tree flew past her, and then darted away as a clothesline full of laundry still connected to the tree almost whipped her. She had to dodge a flying cow; Gloomy felt awful, she could hear the cow mooing, begging for help, but there was nothing that Gloomy could do. She needed to get out of this storm somehow, but Gloomy had no sense of direction. The intense lightning, the supercharged electrical disturbances, they were interfering with her natural compass and sense of direction.
There was a brilliant flash of lightning, turning the world brighter than day, and it illuminated the nightmare all around Gloomy. An entire grain silo went flying past, almost smashing into her. She flew up. It was the only direction she could think of going. The storm could only go so high. The two foals she was carrying might have a little trouble breathing the thinner air, which wasn’t a problem for Gloomy, but thinner air was better than being dead, all things considered.
It was a struggle to gain altitude. Everything was pushing downwards, or so it felt. Gloomy sideswiped another tornado, it was close, too close, and she let out a little scream right along with the two colts that she was carrying. The wind chucked a stove at her. Dodging that almost caused her to get sucked into a vortex. A second later, what appeared to be part of a chimney flew right at Gloomy, and she couldn’t avoid it. She kicked out with her hind legs, shattering the bricks. Her whole body was pelted with fragments that exploded outwards from the now busted to pieces chimney. Her hind legs were sore and her hoofsies hurt something fierce.
A lightning bolt almost tagged Gloomy, but her reflexes allowed her to dart aside. Gloomy couldn’t keep this up forever, sooner or later, her luck would fail. Which meant that she needed to boogie out of here while she still had luck. She redoubled her efforts to fly up.
Gloomy, clinging to two little colts, continued her battle to climb upwards and escape the storm. She was getting tired, but she still had plenty left to give. She wasn’t one for giving up. The foals were wet, soaked, and shivering against her, either from cold or fear, or maybe both. She had felt a brief moment of warm wetness against her, but that couldn’t be helped. Truth be told, Gloomy was about to widdle herself as well. Hailstones bounced off of her and both of the little colts had their faces pressed against her.
The storm was still throwing things at her, as storms were wont to do. Rather rude, all things considered. Storms and pegasi were natural enemies with a long history of mutual hatred. Pegasi had tamed the storms a long time ago, harnessed them, and had used them to pull Equestria to greatness. Every now and then though, the storms rebelled.
Like now. Gloomy couldn’t even begin to imagine how large of a pegasi army that you would need to battle this storm. There would be casualties, of that there would be no doubt. Gloomy knew that she was pushing her luck with every second spent in the swirling maelstrom.
There was another clap of thunder and then, Gloomy heard… voices? There were fierce cries in the wind. She didn’t know what she was hearing. It seemed as though the very wind itself was tensing up, and so was Gloomy. Holding the two colts, she braced herself, waiting for something to happen.
And something did happen. The clouds parted, swirling away, the skies clearing as an army advanced. Gloomy watched wide eyed as a wall of pegasi wearing golden armor advanced. There were hundreds, no, thousands of pegasi filling the skies… and right behind them…
More pegasi!
Astonished, exhausted, Gloomy watched as the army advanced, coming right at her. She hung in mid air, flapping her wings, her eyes wide behind her goggles, and she saw the most amazing sight. In the middle of it all there was Princess Luna, riding in a hideous looking spiky chariot. Her horn glowed like the sun, dispelling the storm and pushing it back. Her chariot was pulled by the strangest looking pegasi that Gloomy had ever seen; they looked more reptilian than equine, they had slitted eyes, forked tongues that flickered out, and wings like dragons.
As Gloomy flew in place, several pegasi broke off from the formation, flew right for her, and before she could even protest, she was snatched up. She was pulled into the middle of the formation, near Princess Luna’s chariot. The blue alicorn was bellowing at the storm, chastising it for harming her ponies, her voice was like angry thunder.
Now safe in the middle of an advancing army of thousands, Gloomy smiled and gave the two colts that she was holding a little squeeze. For the two colts, one pegasus had been enough, one pegasus had made a difference, and Gloomy was glad that she had flown into the storm.
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Boy, does this feel familiar.
~Skeeter The Lurker
OMG.
The intense amount of inspiration.
6514998
Nope. Just a whirlwind tour of Equestria. Maybe try reading it instead of just looking at the description, ya know?
6515020
I did.
You should know, I never comment before reading.
~Skeeter The Lurker
6515021
Eh, similarities are similarities.
Most writing shares a similar theme or two. This... this is about a pegasus that goes from city to city in Equestria, getting some idea of the larger world around her, with the ultimate goal being that she forms an opinion of the world around her, something she is currently lacking because she hasn't seen enough of it. This is a sister story to The Weed, which explores a similar theme of exploring the world around you, using the world as your classroom, and experiencing personal growth and development as the characters are exposed to opinions and viewpoints far outside of their own. It's also a journey through headspace, as will be told by the journal entries with first person perspectives.
You know, like so many other adventure stories. Which, OMG! I'M COPYING ALL THE STORIES! EVERY ADVENTURE STORY EVER WRITTEN!
Or, you know, just shared themes and common elements if you want to avoid the drama of accusations.
6515047
Everything you just said further suggests you're take a page (or in this case a figurative chapter) from him. I'm just commenting my personal feelings toward this.
But, hey. I'm not accusing, so no need for the anger.
~Skeeter The Lurker
6515063
I'm not angry in the slightest. No worries. I suppose that's hard to translate into text.
Yes, as stated, look at me, I'm copying every adventure story ever written, yada yada. I confess, stop with the thumbscrews.
So... I suppose that every story about a pegasus leaving home is now stealing from just one particular story? Is that what is being suggested? That pegasi leaving home stories are now all compared to one story and come with thinly veiled accusations of theft? Only one person is allowed to lay claim to 'pegasus leaves home, goes on adventure' as a theme?
Do you go into every other 'pegasus leaves home, goes on adventure' story and make thinly veiled accusations of plagiarism as well, or am I just special? What is your purpose here? Seems to me that you came here, with others, as indicated by the number of upvotes on your comment, just to try and start drama.
Perhaps you'd care to enlighten us all as to your purpose.
6515087
My motives are my own, man.
Seriously, you might wanna cool down a bit. There really is no need to get so steamed. How do you know I wasn't giving you a compliment? You're just assuming I'm being rude.
~Skeeter The Lurker
6515098
Because I've watched you as you do this to other people, dropping into a comments section, dropping a drama bomb, and then vacating, leaving behind a bunch of people fighting, flaming, and badmouthing the author. So that leaves me wary.
6515107
Me? Are you certain of that?
Honestly, sounds like you have me confused with the guys in Rage Reviews or someone else, actually.
I've never done that. At all.
~Skeeter The Lurker
6515113
You did it in the Chase comment section too... a lot of people latched on to what you said. I don't even remember what was said, just something vague, and it unleashed the floodgates.
You have an immense cult of personality that follows you. While you might not mean for trouble to start, it does. Like it or not, your opinion matters and people latch on to what you say, or what they think you are saying. Being intentionally vague allows for a lot of interpretation; hey, this might be an accusation of plagiarism or it might be a compliment. Other people reading it, especially those who might not like the author, will use this as an excuse to go to town, and point at one of the local celebrities of FimFic to justify it. "Well, look what he said!" And then it starts.
This is not an attack upon you, but more a comment on the state of affairs and the general nature of how things are. You can't be held responsible for the stupid shit that others do.
It's like an art critic that goes into a museum, looks at a piece of art, raises an eyebrow, and then walks away. Everybody who had the celebrity art critic sighting has something to say, some interpretation of what the raised eyebrow actually meant. For a somewhat controversial artist, people will use this as an excuse to get stuff started, intentions of the art critic be damned.
It doesn't matter what the art critic intended. He might have been impressed. But he never said so. Nope. He just raised an eyebrow and moseyed off, perhaps unaware of the effect of a raised eyebrow.
It's funny how the world works. Really, it is.
6515132
...Huh. I did?
I honestly don't recall that. Oh well, what's done is done, I suppose.
Allow me to be clear then, good choice for fic inspiration, if indeed that inspired it. If not, fun coincidence.
~Skeeter The Lurker
6515132
This is a pretty fascinating idea, I have to say. Honestly, it'd probably make for a good story or two.
What I love about this idea is that Skeeter / the Art Critic doesn't actually need to do anything. The act of observing the object, and being known to observe it, catalyzes peripheral observers to make judgments about someone else's judgments. It's like a critical Rorschach test. I'm guessing it'd just mean that other observers feel liberated to make comments they already wanted to make but kept to themselves out of fear that they'd in turn be judged for their act of judging.
Seriously, this is fascinating. I really like this idea, and I think it rings true.
6515142
You might not even be aware of it happening, after having exited the thread and gone elsewhere.
Which is why I responded, hoping to draw out some substance of what was being said.
I wasn't angry, but I was worried, and was hoping to draw out some clarity from the remark made. My intention was to get you to respond and make your actual intentions clear, so people couldn't point at this later and make claims based on a vague, passing statement.
Dood, seriously, not angry with you at all. Just trying to avoid potential conflicts after having spotted patterns of potential trouble brewing.
6515162
It's not just Skeeter the Lurker... to be fair, several of FimFic's celebrity members can drop into a thread, make a vague comment that could be viewed in any number of ways, and then set off a veritable firestorm. Downvoting campaigns begin. Others show up to fight the good fight. Various groups that focus on negativity and bullying authors come pouring in and use it as an excuse to attack the author. At some point, a comment gets deleted or somebody crosses the line and the comment section becomes a shitstorm.
And perfectly good stories can be utterly ruined and downvoted into oblivion, all because of one person coming into a threat and saying something like, "Neat."
Was it sarcasm? Derision? Was the person posting the comment being genuine? Was it a thinly veiled attack? Was it honest praise? Nobody knows. Nobody cares. Look everybody, the celebrity poster has spoken! Please, pick your side and enjoy the flamewar now in progress. Everybody else has an agenda and will look for any excuse for a chance to go off. They don't need a reason, just an excuse.
It's all quite frustrating, really.
extra 'journal of'
extra a
to present
roof
lowercase the
ripped
Oooh, I like this already. And not just because I'm a supporter of the New Lunar Republic.
I like Gust's outlook on life.
"That is a big fuck off storm. Aaaand now I'm in it. Oh look, ponies to save. I'mma do that now."
6514998
On the face of it, your comment can only be interpreted as you saying Kudzu is being derivative. I want to thank you for providing the link. I had never seen the stories found there, and I'll add them to my read-it-sometime list. Too busy reading Kudzu's contributions!
I haven't read this style in a while, I believe it was a story by Distaff Pope. I like this.
6515209 I did that once. Felt like shit I did, I posted a comment "could be better" and then all hell broke loose and everyone ignored the rest of my comoment saying why I thought such. It got deleted 3 days later, all of it, and the author blocked me. Which is why I stick to select few authors, the world out their is mad, and most of it could honestly be much better.
What can one person do? More than no person. That's one of the most legitimately inspiring things that I've read in a while.
izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-it-s-a-dangerous-business-frodo-going-out-of-your-door-he-used-to-say-you-step-into-the-road-j-r-r-tolkien-289606.jpg
Couldn't let it go without a nod to the grandmaster for this base quote that inspired so many, glad to see this tradition continue.
Shot-peened tender rump.
We will triumph. Go forth, Gloomy!
I think the "the" should be removed.