Breaking the Storm Scale
Rainbow Dash flew east.
It was a simple journey, one that had become so routine that it was practically reflex. The sights and sounds of the landscape below flew by in a blur. It was all part of the challenge, the drive to push herself further, and to be the best flyer she could be.
Never in her wildest dreams, of course, did she imagine she would make it this far. Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty. Rainbow Dash, the Wonderbolt. Rainbow Dash, the Fastest Mare Alive. She was practically a household name, yet fame had done surprisingly little to change her. Perhaps she simply hadn’t been interested in letting it change her. Perhaps she had, and learned the hard way not to let it go to her head. Either way, being a hero and an inspiration to so many wasn’t what drove her. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t relish in the attention, but there was so much more to what she wanted out of her own life.
Being a Wonderbolt was a group effort, and she couldn’t have been more honored to be a part of something greater than herself. But as she’d spent more time with her teammates, it had only become apparent that there was still more for her to learn. And here it was, far past the reaches of the land, that she would find her calling. Breaking her limits, piercing the heavens, going further beyond.
The cloud cover passed beneath her like an endless blanket of cotton, the cool wind whipping through her mane and bodysuit as she spiraled and dove through the air, painting the early morning sky with her trail like a brushtroke of rainbow ink. A part of her was disappointed that no one on the ground would see her artful maneuvers through the clouds, but she could hardly blame the local weather teams for following their own forecasts.
None of that mattered, however, when the sun crested above the eastern horizon. The sensation would have been blinding, yet with her enchanted flight goggles firmly strapped over her eyes, the sunrise left only the sight of a breathtaking gold and yellow coloring the sky.
A smile crept its way across Rainbow’s face. At the speed she had left Ponyville, sunrise would have come at just about the time she would arrive at her destination. And sure enough, as she pushed forward, the clouds parted to reveal the vast blue ripples of the Celestial Sea. For as long as anyone could remember, the seas and oceans had served as a drainage basin for all of the weather produced by Ungula’s creatures. Whether it was crafted by the pegasi of Equestria, the griffins of the Eastern Continent, or other such creatures of the skies, all of the clouds drained into briny air between continents. It was here, over the waters, that they gave their last dying gasps of rain and thunder.
And as Rainbow continued to pass over the waters, the surface of the sea grew steadily more tumultuous. Little ripples became great crests, and great crests became crashing waves. Deep in the hollow cavities of her bones, she could feel the air pressure dropping. A new mass of clouds began to appear on the edge of the horizon, dark and gray and spiraling. A storm was approaching, and it was approaching fast.
Awesome, she thought to herself. Hurricanes over the Celestial Sea very rarely hit land, and so most pegasi had no experience flying in such conditions. But Rainbow Dash was far from most pegasi. She was Rainbow Dash, after all.
With a massive push forward, Rainbow accelerated, shooting forth like a rocket. The wind, rain, and clouds greeted her with a roar of thunder, and before long the stormy grey mass engulfed her completely. Hurricane-force winds howled as they pushed against her body, pouring rain battered against her goggles, and electric charge crackled in the gaps between the cumulonimbus. As the thunder rumbled, her insulated suit itched against her skin, a reminder that less than an inch of rubber was all that lay between her and a nearly a billion volts of electricity. What few cadets had tried to brave such storms without their suits were never seen at Wonderbolts Academy again — if they survived at all.
Tension built up within Rainbow’s chest, followed by an unshakable determination. She was at the very heart of the storm now, and mistakes were no longer an option. Every maneuver had to be made with as much precision as she could muster. Most ponies would find such a feat impossible, but Rainbow Dash was not most ponies.
A quick flash of sparks appeared in the clouds to her right. Feeling the sudden tingle in the air, she dipped to the side just in time to avoid a bolt of lightning that streaked through the stormy clouds. With each passing second, her movements became more in tune with the storm. Dipping, twirling, and rolling through the tumultuous winds and lightning strikes was practically reflex now, as though she had become one with hurricane itself.
It was here, beyond the most intense rushes of adrenaline, that she found herself overcome by a sudden tranquility. The danger of the storm was no longer of any concern to her. She moved with such fluidity and easy that she barely had to make any conscious effort, and her thoughts dulled to a state of perfect calm. The storm raged on, her body pushed itself past its upper limits, and yet she could not feel more at peace.
“Caw!”
And just like that, the tranquility was ripped away by a piercing squawk. Brought out of her trance-like state of mind, Rainbow turned her head to the side, toward the sound of the disturbance. Flying next her, with feathers as black as midnight, was a seemingly ordinary crow. It followed her movements closely, repeating a call so ear-grating that it nearly drowned out the constant low rumbles of thunder.
“Caw! Caw!”
Rainbow winced as the crow’s rough squawking scraped against her eardrums. “Hey, cut it out! That’s really distracting!”
“Caw!” The crow repeated. Clearly, it had either not understood, or was uninterested in listening.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “I don’t have time for this.” With another push of her wings, she accelerated forward, leaving her follower in the metaphorical dust.
Or so she had thought. Less than a minute later, as she moved closer to the eye of the storm, she was once again assaulted by an all-too-familiar cry.
“Caw!”
Sure enough, Rainbow turned in the direction of the bird call, and once again saw the very same crow keeping pace with her. “What? You again?”
“Caw!”
“I said knock it off! I need to focus!” As if to prove her point, another bolt of lightning streaked by with a cacophonous thunderclap, just barely missing both of the two flyers.
“Caw!”
Rainbow groaned. “Not gonna take a hint, huh? Alright then, let’s see you keep up with this!”
Another push forward, and another burst of acceleration. By now, Rainbow would have to be traveling at more than half the speed of sound. The rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning were so quick to pass by her that they were almost nothing more than a blur of sights and sounds, and yet still she kept going forward. That was what she was there to do, after all. But the lingering doubt in the back of her mind wondered if it was enough. And so, she pushed herself even further, performing all the tricks and aerial maneuvers she could manage at such speeds. The Buccaneer Blaze, the Cosmic Hyperflip, the Celestia Air, the Mistborn Cobra, and many more such flips, rolls, and dives that she hadn’t bothered to name yet. By the end of it, she could only glide atop the hurricane winds, still giddy with exhilaration despite the creeping fatigue in her joints.
“Caw!”
And just like that, Rainbow’s heart sank. She almost didn’t want to look. Yet look she did, and right there, just to her left, was the very same crow that had been pursuing her the whole time.
“What!? How!?”
“Caw!”
Were it not for the constant rumble of the storm, Rainbow would have heard the grinding of her own teeth. She had come here to prove herself, to show the world she was truly exceptional. And yet this crow, this completely ordinary bird, had managed to match her every move.
“Okay, that is it!” Rainbow shouted. Any restraint that she held before was instantly scrubbed away, and before she knew it, she was going through the familiar motions of her single greatest feat. The air pushed sharply against her as she accelerated further, a cone of sharp pressure rapidly forming around her body. It had become almost routine at this point, but it had somehow never gotten less exhilarating.
Then, in a burst of blinding light and deafening sound, Rainbow Dash crossed a threshold. From the world that other ponies knew, into the world of pure speed. On the edge of her peripheral vision she could see the prismatic ring exploding outward from the point where the sound barrier shattered, cutting through the clouds and illuminating the darkened skies. A grin made its was across her face. She’d won, just as she knew she would. That dumb bird had—
A tingle of dread ran down Rainbow’s spine. In the world of speed she did not hear anything, for even sound itself could not reach her. Yet she was certain, in that moment, that a bird’s call had crossed her eardrums. Slowly, as her heart sank into her stomach, she turned her head to see the very same crow that had been following her.
Rainbow could only stare in horror. It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be possible. None before had ever matched her speed, yet the crow had done so with the utmost ease. And as her mind went blank, Rainbow Dash could feel the hurricane winds pushing against her, disrupting the lift that carried her. And as her altitude began to drop, the crow cried out to her once more.
The last thing Rainbow felt was an explosion of pain, and a torrent of salty water flooding into her lungs.
————————
Darkness. All was darkness. With no sensations of touch, sight, or sound to guide her, Rainbow Dash had at first not even realized she was anywhere at all. Was she dead, she wondered?
Her questions were put out of her mind when a light crept onto the edge of her vision. It grew in size and intensity, until it reached a point where it was nearly blinding. Her other senses came into focus soon after, the burning in her lungs, the course sand embedded in her sopping wet hair, the unbearable taste of salt, and the sound...
“Caw.”
I’m in Hell. I’m dead, and this is Hell.
As her eyes steadily drifted open, adjusting themselves to the light, Rainbow was met with the image of a serene beach, untouched by the ocean hurricane. Her joints ached and her skin chafed as she slowly stood to her hooves, observing her new surroundings. Her eyes then drifted downward, toward the crow that was now standing just in front of her. It looked back up at her, a curious gleam in its pupils.
“Caw?”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Rainbow replied. “Were you the one that dragged me out of the ocean?”
The crow nodded. “Caw!”
“Yeah, thanks,” Rainbow admitted. A brief pang of guilt ran through her. Had she risked getting hurt over a pointless stunt, just to soothe her own wounded ego? What would her friends think? “I, uh... may have gotten carried away just a bit there.”
“Caw!”
A short but heavy breath pushed its way past her nostrils. “Look, don’t worry about it. It’s fine.” She paused briefly, regarding the crow curiously. She could tell from its rain-slicked body and rustled feathers that it had flown for quite some distance. “You know,” she said, “that was some pretty impressive flying back there.”
“Caw?”
“Yeah, totally! It was actually pretty awesome. I don’t know of any pony that’s been able to keep up with me like that. We should fly with each other again some time!”
“Caw!”
“Sounds good to me!” said Rainbow. With a beat of her wings, she took to the air, giving the crow a wave as she leisurely began her flight back home. “I’ll catch you around. And be sure to check out Wonderbolts show next time you’re in Ponyville!”
As the lands passed below her, Rainbow could hear one last bird cry cross her ears. She chuckled gently to herself as she headed inland, thinking of the absurdity of it all. Yet already, she could feel a sense of kinship with the crow that had so easily matched her, and challenged her to her limits.
Then again, perhaps it wasn’t too absurd. Friendships, after all, could come from the strangest of places.
————————
Rainbow Dash, Wonderbolt 2RWB
Legendary Creature — Pegasus Soldier
Flying, haste
RW: All damage that would be dealt to other creatures you control this turn is dealt to Rainbow Dash, Wonderbolt instead.
2WB: Choose target creature attacking you. Return Rainbow from your graveyard to the battlefield blocking that creature. Exile Rainbow at end of combat. If Rainbow would die this turn, exile it instead.
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The memes! The memes!
Wonderful, simply wonderful
And 12.7 million words later....
... in the end... what exactly was that crow?
9243577
Storm crow descending, winter unending.
Storm crow departing, summer is starting
9243577
gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?type=card&multiverseid=3119
9243577
As you aren't going to get a specific answer otherwise....Storm Crow is a MtG meme (this story is a giant meme fest and I love it). The card itself is actually not a terrible Limited Card (As its a 2 cost flier), but outside of that format its fairly meh.
Then came the Alliances set, which included a card called "Force of Will" which was an exceptionally good card that allows you to Counter a Spell for FREE if you exile a Blue card from your hand....like Storm Crow. Some people proclaimed that this made every blue card intrinsically good as they could be exiled for Force of Will. The specific claim was in fact that "Storm Crow, the worst Blue Card in the set, is better then any non-Blue Card because it could be used with Force of Will." Which is clearly false.
From their people, just for fun, tried to come up with more and more silly and elaborate reasons why Storm Crow was the best card ever.
This exaggeration was then taken to further extremes when Wizards of the Coast made Urza (arguably the most powerful Planeswalker in cannon, with feats such as destroying an entire plane, surviving decapitation and the like) claim he was a 'Storm Crow.' As Urza had no card, but Storm Crow did, therefore Storm Crow was Urza and thus Storm Crow was the most powerful card in the game.
Finally the thing that made it an all time meme was Wizards did a set of contests about 7 years ago that involved people voting for their favorite X (Favorite Creature, Favorite Instant, favorite Combo, etc, etc.) Due to the fact that the older players from the 90s would all work together to nominate Storm Crow if it even vaguely qualified cause it was funny, it inevitably won. This turned the Meme from something known to the older players of Magic into a Meme for all MTG players.
Thus Storm Crow is second ONLY to Island as the most OP card in magic. And Island is only more OP because you can use it to cast Storm Crow.
Wait, what? You're not a collapsing punctuation mark!
And in two out of those three cases, growing extremely spiky blonde hair.
... oh, thank goodness, there was only one of them. And this was just an ordinary hurricane, not a crow storm. (And only now do I realize that those are like dragon tempests, but with different dinosaur descendants.) In any case, great contemplative Dash piece, which of course means she's flying in conditions that no sane pegasus would want. And it looks like Tank has some competition.
As for Dash's card, you might want to borrow some of Isareth's technology on that second ability. Plus there's the fact that it basically says "As long as Dash's owner has five mana open, you can't attack them with creatures with power 2 or less and without hexproof." And the first one combined with, say, Ghostly Possession could be all kinds of nuts. If anyone asks, Dash has been possessed by Firefly herself. This one would probably require further playtesting, and goodness knows we could say that about plenty of mine.
9243964
RD would totally work as a shonen anime protagonist. Her rival would still be the crow.
Pretty sure there was a Cawse and effect here RD with your little friend there.
9243964
The second ability was designed as a sort of “pushing through despite injury” sort of deal. I’ve been tweaking it a bit to make sure it isn’t too wordy to fit on a typical magic card, and it’s gone through a few revisions in terms of cost, effect, etc.
I’ve continued making a few tweaks to the card post-publishing and I think the current version is ultimately what I want to go with:
Damnit Storm Crow! Why are you in my high value cube again?
I know this is a reference, I just don't know from where.
Oh man. I did not expect the Storm Crow meme, but here we are. What a time to be alive.
An excellently written contemplative piece. I had no knowledge of the Storm Crow meme, and this was still a good read.
Of course, if you see "son_of_heaven176", chances are that typos have been spotted.
Typos have been spotted.
I think you a word there.
Again, you a word there.
And now it's just a letter.