The Weatherpony

by AlicornPriest

Prologue: The Mind of Hephaestus

4th Year of Rosy Apple
April 12

“General Lightning! The siege towers are here!”

Sheet Lightning sighed and ran a hoof through his grizzled mane as the courier came to him. They'd been maintaining an interminable series of fighting retreats against the earth pony hordes, and now the war had finally reached Cloudsdale. His troops could hold them back for a while, but sooner or later, the invaders would find purchase; the moment they did, it would be all over. The Skyland of the Pegasi would be no more, its people enslaved to the Earth Pony Principality.

“Tell Major Stormwind to divert her attention to dismantling the towers, if she can.” It won't be enough, Lightning thought to himself. The courier nodded and flew away. He held his composure for a few seconds more, then slumped down below the campaign map he'd been analyzing.

“It's over, eh?”

Lightning laughed despite his mood. “Aren't you supposed to call me 'General,' Flash Freeze?”

“Soon as you call me 'Director,' Ell.” Flash offered Lightning a hoof up, which he took gratefully.

“Heh. Fair enough.” Lightning smiled for a moment, but it faded once reality set in again. “But yes, we're moments from defeat right now. Best-case scenario, two or three hours. If you've got any miracles back in the lab, now would be the time to bring them to me.”

“Fresh out of miracles,” said Flash, “but I did bring the rest of my team with me.” He gestured to the door, where four fresh-faced young ponies, barely above the drafting age, had clustered around the threshold and were watching the two old friends catch up. Flash pointed to each one in turn. “Specialist Flyglide, weapons focus. Lieutenant Hurricane, aerotech. Eunuch Starbolt, psychodynamics. And of course, Vice-Director Echo, pretty much everything else.”

The vice-director held up a burlap sack, its edges bulging as it strained to hold whatever is inside. “We brought this, too, General. A little extra pep for our last few hours.”

Sheet Lightning smiled as he realized what was inside. “Is that kaffe? I thought we'd run out weeks ago!”

“Saved this last bag just for you, Ell,” Flash replied. “Maybe it'll give us that miracle we need.”

“Maybe it will,” Lightning said. “Let's get to work!”

---

They toiled through the evening, but time was running out. Sheet Lightning could hear the fighting going on beneath them, making the occasional messenger reporting the battle's progress basically unnecessary. The ground troops were being killed, routed, or captured; the airborne units were being shot down with earth pony slings and spears; and Major Stormwind's anti-tower unit were doing worst of all. The leader in charge of the towers—General Shale Pie, most likely—clearly recognized the value they held, as she had an entire platoon defending them. Once one of them made contact with a street or building, the earth ponies would stand in Cloudsdale for the first time in history, and the nation of pegasi would be no more.

“I have a set of prototype wingblades in storage, General,” said Flyglide. “They have a swinging action that gives them extra range—”

“No good, Specialist,” Sheet Lightning replied. “Even if it were ten times more effective than regular wingblades, the earth ponies would still overrun us.”

Hurricane offered, “This duck-and-whirl flight pattern I've devised is 28% faster and more accurate than—”

“It'll deflect stones, but not spears.”

“Hmm.” Hurricane didn't seem to fully accept this, but for the moment, he fell silent once more.

“The earth ponies would be unfamiliar with cloud traversal,” said Starbolt. “Perhaps if we hid beneath the clouds and opened them as they walked beneath us—”

“I will not resort to such cowardly tactics!” Sheet Lightning pounded the table, spilling the dregs of his kaffe across the table. “We will fight them, pony to pony. To do anything less would be a great dishonor.”

“And likely they would catch on e'er too long,” Vice-Director Echo added. “That's why I believe it would be best to abandon Cloudsdale and seek refuge with the Unicornians. Perhaps they will be merciful and—”

“Wait! Eunuch Starbolt's method has given me an idea!” Hurricane jumped up and began pulling bits and pieces of cloud from the edges of the war room.

“I will not steal the cloud from beneath them, Lieutenant,” Sheet Lightning growled. “Do not try to convince me otherwise.”

“No, no, this is a very different concept altogether!” He had fit them together into a makeshift platform—too round and fluffy for most pegasi's taste, but it was about as good as one could expect from thirty seconds of work. He jumped on top of it and gestured wildly as he spoke. “Most clouds we produce are like these: white, soft, docile. Good for standing on, but not much else. As you know, clouds are made up of water vapor. Though they look quite different from water, they are in fact one and the same.”

“Yes, yes. We all know the basics of architecture here,” Lightning said with a wave of his hoof.

“Let me finish, General. I am not speaking of architecture, but of warfare.” Hurricane then grabbed more cloud and pressed them tighter and tighter into the platform, keeping it from growing any larger. “Now, if we take both very warm and very cold cloud material and press them together—”

“No, you mustn't!” Echo jumped up from her seat. “That could cause a lightning storm and kill us all!”

“I assure you, Vice-Director,” Hurricane said with a wicked gleam. “That is exactly what I want.”

“He's gone mad,” said Starbolt. “Perhaps he should be sent down to fight the earth ponies.”

“Now, wait a moment, both of you,” Sheet Lightning said. Then to Hurricane, he asked, “Where are you going with this, Lieutenant?”

“If I push precisely this much together...” The cloud beneath Hurricane rumbled and churned, but no errant sparks shot off from it. “There! The cloud is fit to burst, but it will hold.”

“And what do you propose to do with such a dangerous element?” Flyglide asked.

“Watch closely.” Hurricane grabbed the platform and carried it outside, above the noisy din of fighting. “If I position it above the earth ponies, then kick—”

The air filled with the simultaneous sound of lightning and thunder. It was the horrible, gut-wrenching sound which meant death to any who were unfortunate enough to be around. Lightning knew without looking that every pony beneath that thundercloud was dead. That sound normally signalled tragedy; by Hurricane's hoof, it was now a sound of victory.

“I… I can't believe it,” said Echo. “You've controlled lightning. I didn't think it was possible.”

“You've turned weather into a weapon,” Flyglide added.

“If we act quickly, we can probably construct enough thunderclouds to defend Cloudsdale, at least long enough to get our defenses back into order,” said Hurricane, coming back in.

“We can destroy the towers in seconds!” Flyglide said.

“The earth ponies will run in terror!” Starbolt continued.

“Go, make more of the lieutenant's clouds now!” Lightning ordered them. While they headed out, he added, “Lieutenant, come here.”

Hurricane landed next to him. He seemed both proud of his achievement and uncertain at Sheet Lightning's call. “Sir?”

Lightning smiled. “I'll see you promoted for this, Hurricane. You've turned the tide of the war. I wouldn't be surprised if you're General once I'm gone.”

Hurricane absolutely beamed. “Thank you, sir. I'm honored.”

“But I have a feeling,” Lightning continued, “that you're not done yet. What else can we do with this?”

“I'm impressed, sir,” said Hurricane. “You're right. I have much more in mind for this. We use clouds to construct our homes, our camps, our fortresses. But we forget that these clouds are instruments of weather as well. I believe, with the right set of tools, we can create clouds which will serve any strategic need. Rainclouds to hide our advance and to slow the earth ponies, clear skies for the moment of attack. Snow, tornadoes, all manner of hindrances.”

“You're saying you want to control the weather,” General Lightning said doubtfully.

“I understand your concerns, General,” Hurricane replied. “We've balked at interfering with the natural weather cycle in fear it might cause droughts, floods, and other such problems. But I believe I could organize a team of scientists to study the patterns of weather and how and at what point they can be manipulated. These… 'meteorologists,' I shall call them, would need their own set of funds, as well as a cloud factory specific to their purposes.”

“And would you be Director over them?”

“Yes. Only...” Neither of them wanted to say what that would entail. Only military-track pegasi could reach the level of General and thereby rule the Skyland. A Director, be they of science, strategy, or any other sub-field, was out of the running.

General Lightning paused for a moment, then pushed onward. “You've revolutionized the art of warfare, Hurricane. I believe the time has come for science and war to be of one mind. I want you to be Director of Meteorology and General of the Pegasi Skyland.”

Hurricane seemed confused. “I… don't understand.”

“I'm saying, when I die, it will not be a General that takes over my reign. It will be you… Commander Hurricane.”

Comments

[Georg]

“Wait! Eunuch Starbolt's method has given me an idea!”

Um. I hope that's a title.