A Gathering Storm

by BritBrony

Chapter 4

Storm Shadow followed Rainbow Dash as she spiralled down into the marketplace. It had been a long, rigorous afternoon and thankfully there had been no further mishaps. The sun had finally set a few minutes earlier and the stalls were long gone. Rainbow paused outside a three-storey building with a sign hanging outside.

“The Headless Horse?” said Storm Shadow, reading from the sign.

Rainbow Dash grinned in response and pushed open the door, pausing for a few moments before spotting the rest of the team sat around a table at the back of the pub and heading over. After a strenuous day of training, the team had agreed to meet at one of the pubs surrounding the marketplace for a good meal and a few drinks – an equally important team building experience, Storm Shadow had told herself.

Exchanging greetings with the weather pegasi, Storm Shadow took the stool at one end of the table while Rainbow Dash took the other.

“Where’s Derpy?” asked the weather captain, realising the table was one short.

“She was just heading home to check in on her fillies,” replied Blossomforth, “I’m sure she’ll get here soon.”

The team chatted and exchanged small talk for a couple of minutes before Star Hunter gestured towards the door with one wing. Storm Shadow looked up to see the Derpy wander through the doorway, a ponderous look on her face.

“Hey, Derpy–” said Rainbow, trailing off as she trotted straight past the table, close enough for Storm Shadow to see her lips moving silently, one eye pointed up at the ceiling. Storm Shadow opened her mouth in amazement as Derpy pushed through the door into the kitchen, followed shortly afterwards by a loud crash.

“Ooops, my bad!” said Derpy, backing her way out of the kitchen to a series of loud cursing from inside.

“Hey, Derpy, over here!” called out Rainbow. The grey pegasus heard her this time, and wandered over to the table, smiling.

“You OK, Derpy?” asked Blossomforth as she pulled out a stool and sat down.

“Fine, fine,” replied Derpy, sheepishly.

“You looked like you were a million miles away. What were you thinking about?”

Derpy stole a quick look at Storm Shadow.

“Uh, nothing, nothing,” she said, quickly. “You know, stuff. Muffins!”

The assembled team rolled their eyes at this, except Storm Shadow, who kept her gaze levelled at Derpy.

“Well,” said Storm Shadow, deciding to change the subject. She looked around the table, “it’s been a long day and I’m hungry, but more importantly, I’m also thirsty.”

At the rest of the team’s insistence, the first round was on Thunderlane for his dressing down from Rainbow Dash, and given her involvement in the same incident, Storm Shadow had quickly ponied up for the second round before the jeers started. After they had eaten, the weather team pushed back their stools and relaxed, allowing Storm Shadow to immerse herself in the sea of gentle chatter, taking the opportunity to get to know her temporary wingponies a little better – even Rainbow Dash had relaxed a little since that morning, enjoying the company of friends. The effect had been spoiled a little when Derpy had knocked over a quarter-full mug of cider. She froze for a second before looking around at the rest of the team, eyes wide and brimming with false innocence.

“I just don’t know what went wrong!” she exclaimed, shrugging her forelegs.

This had sent the rest of the team into paroxysms of laughter, much to Storm Shadow’s puzzlement, and Thunderlane tried to explain before being cut off by Derpy.

“I’d rather tell the story myself, if you don’t mind.”

Thunderlane gave a magnanimous wave of his hoof and headed to the bar to replace his drink.

“So, like I said, my depth perception isn’t that great with this thing,” said Derpy, gesturing to her eye and sending it rolling around while remaining focused on Storm Shadow with her other. “I do tend to have a few accidents here and there.”
Storm Shadow nodded and ignored the mostly-suppressed titters from around the table.

“Well, some days are better than others,” said Derpy, continuing her story. “There was this time a couple of months ago – Rainbow had asked me to help out with a few small storm clouds; they were closer to the town than she was comfortable with.

“Problem was, I had an absolutely awful head cold. So, I grabbed a bottle of cough syrup and took a nice big swig. Then I spotted another bottle in the medicine cabinet, supposed to be good for sinus problems, so I took a dose of that, too. Unfortunately, I didn’t read the labels – they were both night remedies.”

Storm Shadow put her head in her hooves, trying to stifle her laughter. “You’re joking. She’s joking, right?”

A few of the team gave wistful smiles and shook their heads.

“Oh, I wish I was,” said Derpy, taking a swig of cider. “So, I pitch up at the edge of town and meet Rainbow, and we start bucking these clouds to knock some of the lightning out of them while we’re still outside the town centre.”

“Let me guess, at this point, you’re – what’s the term, ‘out of your gourd’?” said Storm Shadow, trying her best not to laugh.

“Wrecked?” said Thunderlane.

“Squiffy,” suggested Blossomforth.

“Buzzed,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Hammered,” was Star Hunter’s input.

“I like ‘Blotto’,” replied Derpy after a moment, hoof tapping against her chin thoughtfully as she jokingly stared off into the middle distance. She looked back at Storm Shadow and continued her story.

“Anyway, I’m bouncing on top of this storm cloud, not realising it’s drifting across town towards the Town Hall. Rainbow is trying to get my attention, but my sinuses are completely clogged and I can’t hear her – besides, I’m so out of it I think she’s waving her hooves in encouragement, so I keep jumping up and down. Next thing I know, she zips past me and then I see – I’ve managed to blow a hole in the roof and knock down the banner that’s been strung for a wave-off ceremony for one of the local rodeo ponies.”

Storm Shadow had pretty much given up on trying not to laugh and was merely trying to stop herself from falling off her stool.

“I then proceeded to blast a couple more holes in Town Hall, fry the end of Rainbow’s tail, then shock myself halfway insensible, culminating in, well, that line.” Derpy shrugged again and smiled. “What can I say, I really didn’t know what went wrong...”

“So what happened next?”

“I’ll tell you what happened next,” said Rainbow Dash, leaning forward with a grin. “She then deployed the most dangerous weapon in all of Equestria!”

Storm Shadow wiped a tear from her eye and frowned, “What, you mean an Element of Harmony or something?”

“Nope, her plot. She managed to continue the demolition derby on the Town Hall, mostly using her butt.”

Thunderlane leaned forward to comment but was cut off by an outstretched hoof from Rainbow Dash, who didn’t even look in his direction as she spoke.

“Thunderlane, if you comment about her plot you’ll still be singing soprano at the next Hearth’s Warming Eve.”

Storm Shadow was again impressed by Thunderlane’s ability to keep his mouth shut, even if it did need prompting.

“Well, I should get home to the girls,” said Derpy, standing up and dropping sufficient bits from her saddlebag to cover her share of the bill. “I’ll see you guys in the morning.”

“Formal briefing tomorrow morning, 7am at the library,” said Rainbow Dash as Derpy shrugged on her saddlebags. She nodded her understanding and trotted out the door to a chorus of farewells from the team, head held high.

“Thunderlane, do I need to kick your ass again?” asked Rainbow Dash, mildly.

“No, boss.”

“Good,” replied Rainbow, “I don’t want to risk chipping a hoof or something.”

The ponies dispersed one-by-one until only Rainbow Dash and Storm Shadow were left behind.

“Well, that’s quite a team you have there, Captain,” said Storm Shadow with a smile, finishing the last of her cider.

“I know,” replied Rainbow. “They’re my team, of course they’re awesome, like me.”

Her cocky grin tightened at the look on Storm Shadow’s face.

“Yeah, I know, first impressions weren’t great this morning. You’ve seen them fly now, though – what do you think our chances are?”

“Another day of training will be useful,” said Storm Shadow, “But they were all pretty good this afternoon. If everything goes according to plan, I think we should be fine.”

---

The ponies gathered in the main room of the library shortly after daybreak, with Twilight Sparkle again playing host to a Weather Service briefing. Breakfast was courtesy of Derpy’s muffins once more, with hot drinks supplied by the librarian. Storm Shadow noticed that her dragon assistant was absent, and upon commenting on this fact, was informed by Twilight that Spike was “not a morning pony”.

“OK, settle down,” said Rainbow Dash, calling the attention of the weather team to herself as she hovered over the main table. “I’ve hoof-selected this team for this assignment because it’s not going to be an easy one. We’ve been tasked by the Special Meteorological Bureau to use a non-scheduled storm to refill the local reservoirs around Ponyville, starting with Solar Glory and moving on to Highland, Applevale and Meadowgreen.”

The weather team shared a few glances at this news. It was obvious from the unscheduled training with a ‘Chaser the previous day that something was cooking; a major storm was rare, but not so far outside their experience to be a serious worry. Yet.

“When’s the storm getting here?” asked Blossomforth.

“It should arrive early tomorrow morning,” said Rainbow Dash, “it’s coming in from the direction of Trottington; once it clears the mountains to the west we’ll start the downpour over the edge of the Everfree, aiming to dump the majority of the rain into the upper valley where it’ll be caught by the dam. The remainder will fall in the valley itself, over the town and surrounding fields, so we’ll get some natural fill into the reservoirs and the rest we can top up from the river by releasing from Solar Glory. Any questions so far?”

“Coming in from the west means the backstop for the storm is the town itself,” commented Star Hunter.

“True,” replied Rainbow, “So we need to time this one right. Twilight has agreed to be our liaison with Mayor Mare and the local government, so we’ll get the notifications out today that there’s an unscheduled shower on its way.”

“This is a bit sudden, isn’t it?” asked Thunderlane, “Why are we getting a storm in from the east, anyway? Normally the stuff we pick up from the Everfree is, you know, a bit weird.” He shivered a little at the last word.

“We need to refill the water sources around Ponyville as soon as we can,” replied Rainbow Dash.

Storm Shadow watched the briefing continue as Rainbow started going into to more detail about what the team could expect when the storm arrived, breaking off after a minute or so of listening to reassuringly sensible questions from the team to answer the gentle knock on the library door. She found her father outside, shaking ice crystals off his wings before stepping through the door. He paused to hug his daughter in the doorway.

“Dad, you’re freezing!” whispered Storm Shadow, shaking condensation from his mane off her foreleg.

“The joys of the Dawn Patrol,” replied Cirrostratus with a grin.

“Ah, perfect timing!” announced Rainbow Dash from the front of the room. “Everypony, this is Dr Cirrostratus, he’s been assigned as our Dawn Patrol for this operation. Doc, have you got our briefing?”

“I certainly have, Ms Dash,” said Cirrostratus, trotting to the front. “OK, I laid eyes on your storm this morning, it’s currently over Hoofington and heading this way, fast. I don’t think the original timeline is going to hold.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I’d expect the first fringes of the storm to be hitting Ponyville tonight.”

Storm Shadow stepped forward, surprised. “Central said–”

“I know what they said, but given where it was yesterday and what I saw today, it’s moving fast. I think it’s going to be this evening.”

Storm Shadow and Rainbow Dash shared a look. What was already a tricky job was going to be even more difficult with the added complexity of encroaching darkness, not to mention the loss of time for further training for the team.

“Perhaps I can help tilt the balance a little for you,” interjected Cirrostratus, reaching into a saddlebag with his wing. He drew out a small wooden box and set it on the table. “The boffins are still testing these, but they’re working well.”

He opened the box, revealing two rows of small brass rings set vertically in red velvet. Reaching a primary feather through one of the rings and pulling, he lifted a softly glowing purple crystal from the padding. The crystal was a couple of inches long and maybe a half inch in diameter, and the brass ring was attached to a cap piece enclosing one end, leaving an inch and a half or so uncovered. Holding it up for the ponies to see, he beckoned with his other wing.

“Miss Shadow, could you assist me for a moment?”

Storm Shadow trotted forward and joined the white stallion, at which point he stuck the crystal in her ear.

“Argh!” she cried, jumping away from him, “Not so rough, please!”

“I’m sorry, my dear,” said Cirrostratus. “Now, these are ElectroMagic crystals, set to vibrate at the same frequency. Well, that’s what the ponies back in the labs told me. What can I say, I’m a flyer, not an engineer.”

“I asked the Doctor to get us a set for this operation,” explained Storm Shadow, adjusting the position of the crystal in her left ear using the ring for leverage. “They’ll allow us to communicate over long distance.”

“They’re still under testing, so they’ll welcome any feedback,” said Cirrostratus. “They’ll also welcome getting them back intact as well, since they’re... kind of on loan.”

Storm Shadow looked around at her father. “They did give you permission to use them, right?”

Cirrotratus fidgeted nervously. “Of course. Well, not officially.”

Storm Shadow fixed her father with a stern look.

“OK, I had to strike a deal with the head of the Communications section at the labs.”

Storm Shadow’s eyes narrowed; she didn’t like where this was going.

“Dad, what did you agree to?” she asked, ignoring the raised eyebrows from some of the team members.

“Well, Far Talker has a son, he’s about your age...”

Storm Shadow’s blush was visible even through her dark grey coat. “Dad! I’m not a little filly.”

“Just looking out for your future, dear,” said Cirrostratus with a smile.

Storm Shadow paused and looked around at the weather team, who were staring at the pair with a mixture of amusement and bafflement.

“You know what, never mind, we’ll talk about that later,” she said, giving him her best glare. She turned back to the rest of the team.

“Now, come on up here and get one each.”

One by one, the weather team pegasi stepped up and picked up a crystal to slide into their ears, each electing to do the insertion themselves with varying degrees of distaste at the unusual sensation.

Storm Shadow was amused to hear Derpy’s reaction, however.

“Oooh, that tickles!”

---

“This is decidedly weird.”

“We heard you the first time, Thunderlane,” replied Rainbow Dash. “Now clear the channel. And for Celestia’s sake, take your crystal out next time you take a leak, please.”

She looked across at Storm Shadow and rolled her eyes. The two were sitting on a cloud overlooking Ponyville, watching the rest of the team flying apparently at random around the valley.

“Blossom, head for the dam,” ordered Dash.

“Copy, Rainbow.”

Below, a white shape peeled off from her wingpony and turned towards the grey concrete in the distance.

“Derpy, give me a spiral climb.”

“Roger dodger!” was the enthusiastic response as the other pony of the pair started to climb.

“Let’s keep to the assigned callsigns, Derpy,” replied Rainbow Dash, rubbing the bridge of her nose with one hoof.

Strom Shadow smiled. “As you can see,” she said, “You can hear anything anypony on the same channel says. No screaming, no need to shout against windblast. The crystal will sense the vibrations in your skull from you speaking normally and transmit them to all other crystals on the same frequency. There are a few drawbacks; limited range and only a single channel, so everyone hears the same thing.”

“We noticed when we heard Thunder earlier on,” commented Blossomforth, “Whether we wanted to or not...”

There was a brief round of laughter from the ponies on the team.

“OK, settle down,” said Rainbow Dash, “All team members rendezvous up here with Storm and myself.”

The pair waited for the team to reassemble on the cloud.

“OK, everypony,” said Rainbow Dash, “We’ve got a Cat 3 storm out there and it’s heading our way. We’re probably going to need to adjust the course as it comes in closer. Grab some lunch and reassemble up here in an hour, we’ll set off to meet it. It’s going to be a long one, so eat well.”

The weather team began to pull the comm crystals from their ears and set off for town in ones and twos. Storm Shadow waited for the Star Hunter to head off before pulling her own crystal and speaking to Rainbow Dash.

“Come on, I’m buying.”

After a couple of very good daffodil and honey sandwiches on Storm Shadow’s tab, the pair headed back to the library for a final check-in with Twilight Sparkle. They found her in the centre of a miniature whirlwind of papers in the library’s main room.

“Ah, there you are!” she said as the pegasi walked through the door. “OK, I’ve met with the Mayor and the council and let them know what’s going on. There are emergency flyers to distribute warning everypony about a storm, I’ve tasked the Cutie Mark Crusaders to distribute them around town. I’ve also filed a Notice to Air Ponies with Canterlot Central.”

“You filed our NOTAP already?” said Rainbow, surprised. “Then I think that about covers everything.”

“Oh, and I had a brainwave earlier. Can I borrow one of your crystals for a minute?”

Storm Shadow nodded and held out hers on her wing. With a soft purple glow, the unicorn levitated it over to the table and examined it closely. Her horn flared again, and then she levitated it back to the waiting pegasus.

“OK, why don’t you put it in and step outside, let’s see if this works.”

Storm Shadow shared a quick look with Rainbow, who merely shrugged. With that, the grey mare slid the crystal into her ear, opened the library door and stepped outside, shutting it behind her.

“Testing, one, two, three.”

Storm Shadow jumped in surprise at the new voice in her ear. Twilight didn’t have a crystal of her own, there weren’t enough to go around.

“Um. Hello?” she responded, nervously.

“I can hear you! I take it you can hear me?”

Storm Shadow opened the door to see Twilight standing in the same place, her horn lit and her eyes closed. Her lips were barely moving as she spoke, but Storm Shadow could hear them as if she were standing close by.

“This is great!” the unicorn was exclaiming, “You see, the spell I cast means I can send and receive on the crystal’s frequency. I read an article on-”

“You can tap our channel without needing your own crystal,” interrupted Rainbow Dash, “We got it.”

Twilight blushed. “Exactly.”

“Well, there’s a storm out there with our name written on it,” said Storm Shadow. “We should get going.”

“Good luck!” exclaimed Twilight. “I’ll be listening in. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help.”

Rainbow Dash stepped forward and hugged her. “Thanks for all your help, Twi. See you later.”

The two pegasi stepped outside, their eyes set on the cloud above town where the rest of the team were probably already waiting. Storm Shadow took a moment to remove the crystal from her ear.

“Are you ready for this?” she asked.

Rainbow Dash looked around and smiled. With her left wing, she slid her comms crystal into her ear.

“Flight, prepare for launch.”

Comments

[Prince Applejack]

The part about Thunderlane in the bathroom reminded me of the move The naked Gun and I laughed out loud at that part.