A Storm For the Ages

by DmitriTheWriter

Chapter 3: A Story To Tell

When Rainbow Dash arrived back at Ponyville three hours after her encounter, it was late afternoon. Ponies were starting to prepare their dinners, and only a few were still outside, watering their lawns, hawking their wares, etc. The skies were dotted with tiny clouds. Twilight's library house towered above every other building, giving the impression that it could touch those clouds. Dash needed to talk to someone about her near-death experience, and who better than the one pony who might know something.

Dash planted herself in front of Twilight's front door, and politely knocked. She reasoned that she might as well make as good of an impression as she could before dropping a bombshell on Twilight. Inside, Dash could hear paper fluttering and hoofbeats sounding on the stairs inside before, finally, the door was opened.

"Oh, hello Rainbow Dash. What brings you here?"

"Hey, Twilight. Listen, I need to talk to you about something,"

"Well come on in."

The walls inside the house were stacked with full bookshelves, on every topic imaginable, and quite a few on unimaginable topics. The walls and shelves were all shining with fresh polish. Spike was carrying a stack of books fifteen high upstairs, all while mumbling under his breath. Something about Rarity, probably. As Dash flew to the left center of the room, Twilight telekinetically grabbed a full teacup and teapot from upstairs, and held them in front of herself.

"Alright, Rainbow, what's your story?"

"Okay, so you know how I go to the western shore of Equestria every so often?"

"This is the first time you've mentioned doing so."

"That's besides the point. Anyways, I met this guy on the open ocean,"

"Uh huh,"

"He had this crazy ship that had no crew members and seemed to come out of nowhere, and a flag that was, like, a cracked pony skull with two bones under it,"

"Uh huh," Twilight had now grabbed a quill and piece of parchment and began to take notes as she sipped her tea.

"So I went to talk to him and I was like 'Hey, what's up?', then he started messing with his bracelet and the oceans started churning and he threw a pillar of water at me,"

"He threw a pillar of water at you?" Twilight asked quizzically.

"Yeah, or at least I think he did. After that, I said something like 'Well, gotta go.', and he started freakin' chasing me through the skies with his wings that I never saw before! I only barely escaped with my life."

"Whoa! Rainbow Dash, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. But that whole thing was just crazy,"

"Did you catch his name at all? Maybe we can bring him under arrest,"

"Yeah, he said his name was Chrysaor or something else weird like that."

"I think I've read that name before somewhere. Hold on," Twilight dropped everything she was carrying and grabbed a shelf's full of books from her 'World Mythology' section.

As Twilight was flipping through books titled things like 'History of the Pegasi' and 'Whatever Happened to Nephelogia?', Rainbow Dash asked "Soooo...are we gonna call up everypony else? What exactly are we going to do against this guy?"

Twilight levitated her books back onto the shelf. "Nope. Nothing on 'Chrysaor'. I may have just been imagining things,"

"But I certainly wasn't! Come on, Twilight. Let's go find the others and figure out what to do with this guy,"

"Hold on, where are we gonna meet?"

"I don't know where. Let's just meet in front of town hall."

By the time all of the Mane 6 had been rounded up, it was late evening. There was a mass of clouds coming in from the east, from Everfree Forest. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie all looked at Dash in a strange mix of awe and horror as she recanted her tall tale.

"You mean someone tried to murder you?!" Rarity looked as if she were about to faint dramatically at a moment's notice, as usual.

"And you mentioned something about him wearing a bracelet?" Applejack said.

"Yeah! He started fiddling with it and then the ocean went all nuts!" Rainbow Dash's voice was still shrill with disbelief.

"Twilight, do you know anything about this?" Applejack asked.

"Sorry, but none of the books I looked at mentioned 'Chrysaor' at all." Twilight started scratching her head.

"None of us have a clue!" Rarity telekinetically dragged her couch outside and pretended to dramatically faint on it, the back of her forehoof on her forehead.

"Nope," Pinkie was now wearing a deerskin hat and an Inverness cape, only to take both of them off a second later.

Twilight thought of a mare who might know the threat they're up against. "Maybe Celestia knows who this Chrysaor is."

"Alright," Rainbow Dash glanced at the train station, and the train leaving without them. "But the last train to Canterlot just left."

"Oh," Twilight too glanced at the train station, now with the train fully absent, "Well then we'll just have to go first thing tomorrow. Good thing too, we'll probably need all of the rest we can get. Good night everypony,"

"Good night!" everyone went off towards their own homes.

That night, with Spike packing his possessions in a suitcase in the background, Twilight Sparkle wrote a letter to Celestia, letting them know they were coming:

Dear Princess Celestia,

I, along with my friends, are coming to Canterlot to see you. We may need some exposition on an adversary we're facing, as none of us know anything about him. We're hoping you know something, even just a little bit on his backstory. We'll be there at around 10 A.M. tomorrow morning.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

Author's Note:

So what do you think? Any comments, ways I can make this story better?