A Gathering Storm

by BritBrony

Chapter 6

Storm Shadow banked hard and pumped her wings as she dived after the now-freefalling pony, concerned voices starting to echo over the common band asking what had happened. The Storm Chaser ignored them, concentrating on picking out the tumbling pegasus in the darkness and the rain. With another hard pump of her wings, Storm Shadow swooped underneath Derpy, allowing the mailmare to land across her back, just in front of her wings. With a bobble as the extra weight settled, she banked a little before a blast of lightning illuminated the ground in front of her - immediately in front of her.

“Celestia!” she swore, banking hard to the right to avoid the side of the hill that formed most of her view, driving the two weather ponies back towards the reservoir and under the edge of the storm.

“Quiet, everypony! What the hay is going on over there?!” called Rainbow on the common band. “Storm? Blossom?”

“Lightning Strike!” called Blossomforth. “Derpy took a hit and Storm dived after her! I can’t see either of them!”

“Storm? Derpy? Report!”

Storm Shadow blinked her eyes against the driving rain and pumped her tiring wings against the howling wind. She could feel the blonde mare twitching, her stomach laid across Storm Shadow’s withers.

“I got her...” she gasped, “Derpy, can you hear me?”

She was rewarded by a low, weak moan.

“Wha- happ-“

“Derpy! You OK? Storm, where are you?” asked Rainbow, concerned.

“We’re under - the - storm!” gasped Storm Shadow, fighting to stay aloft as they were buffeted around by the turbulence.

“What the hay!? Get outta there!” called Rainbow Dash.

“Trying - to - “ grunted Storm Shadow, as another bolt of lightning illuminated the Tartarian landscape around them, allowing her to look for the closest edge of the storm and the hills forming the edge of the reservoir. As she picked a likely looking gap, she felt Derpy moving on her back.

“Derpy, you OK?”

“I - I think so,” came the reply, “What happ- LOOK OUT!”

Storm Shadow, focused on the gap between the hills, didn’t see what Derpy had screamed about. The other’s legs suddenly tightened around her body – hard – and dragged their flight path to the right, doubtless as Derpy opened at least one wing fully, acting like an airbrake.

“Der-“ was all she managed to get out before the world exploded in front of her. The lightning bolt barely missed them, arcing from the still-energised contrail just ahead and filling Storm Shadow’s world with white light and fury. A few seconds of screaming later, she realised that she was still alive and could hear again. A few blinks of the eyes and...

“Derpy! Derpy, I can’t see!” she shouted in terror. The lightning had filled her vision with white, which had rapidly faded to a dull violet and nothing more.

“I can!” called Derpy, slightly more energetically than before. Storm Shadow could feel Derpy’s racing heartbeat on her back, the mailmare still clutching tightly with all four legs. “Try to hold altitude!”

“Derpy? Storm? Can you hear me?” That was Rainbow Dash again.

“I-“ Storm Shadow closed her eyes; it made no difference to what she could see but at least it made more sense instinctually; falling back on her flight training, she concentrated on the sensation from her inner ear, feeling the buffeting and trying to stay on an even keel.

“Rainbow, Storm, we’re still airb-“

Rainbow’s voice cut across the comms again. “Storm, Derpy, this is Rainbow, come in!”

“Rainbow, can you hear me?” asked Storm Shadow.

“Can anypony hear them? Blossomforth, can you see them? Can you hear them?”

“Negative, boss, I can’t see them, I don’t know if they’ve ditched or not.”

“Coming left!” called Derpy, and again Storm Shadow felt the dragging sensation, pulling the two of them left as Derpy extended and then retracted a wing. Storm Shadow kept pumping her wings, trusting the other mare to keep them going in the right direction.

“OK, that’s it. Everypony, everypony, clear the area, this storm needs to end right now.”

“Boss, what are you doing?”

“I said get clear, Thunderlane! I’m getting up above this storm and giving it a buck in the teeth!”

Storm Shadow tried to ignore the voices, they obviously couldn’t hear her and they couldn’t help her.

They flew on for what felt like hours but couldn’t have been longer than a few seconds. Each correction and overcorrection left Storm Shadow feeling uncertain that she was even flying the right way up. Another lightning bolt fried the air nearby, thankfully far enough away that the noise was the worst part; even the turbulent air superheated by the passage of so much energy felt weak compared to what had gone before.

Storm Shadow tried to adjust her course again, and once more felt the drag as Derpy struggled to correct their course. With another wobble, a cramp in her right wing and overarching fatigue finally catching up to her, she felt the world tilt again.

“Derpy! I can’t hold it, I think we’re going to crash!”

She felt Derpy twist her head around and place it alongside her own, their cheeks rubbing together.

“Don’t worry, you’re with an expert!”

With that, Storm Shadow felt a pair of wings encircle her head as they spiralled into the dark earth below.

---

Storm Shadow didn’t know how long she’d been out; when she opened her eyes the darkness had been replaced by a violet colour but beyond that she couldn’t tell. The thunder rolling in the distance was all the evidence she needed to tell that the storm was still blowing; the rain running down her face when she tilted her head up as if to look into the sky was mere confirmation. A questing hoof to her right found the warm but unmoving hoof of her friend.

“Derpy?” she croaked.

Before she could get a reply, the sky above her lit up; her violet vision turned white in the centre, with a full spectrum forming a perfect circle around the white patch. It faded quickly, but a second or two later a loud rumbling rolled over Storm Shadow’s body; not thunder, she knew thunder, what was that...?

The rain intensified then died, suddenly.

“Derpy...?” she croaked again, slipping from consciousness.

---

A dog’s bark. That was a dog, right?

“Whacha got, Winona? Go on, girl, whacha got?”

More barking. Yes, definitely a dog.

“Nuts! There they are. Hey, everypony, they’re here! Comet, laht up that fancy horn ‘a yours and give Twi’ the signal.”

Storm Shadow cracked one eye open to see a bright red streak blast across her blurry vision.

“Now don’t ya worry there, sugarcube, help’s here.”

Her vision faded as she slipped away once more.

---

“Derpy. Derpy...”

Storm Shadow woke slowly, moaning softly to herself. She felt around with one hoof, feeling the soft bed, the crisp sheets, the hooves, the blanket, the- wait, hooves?

She heard the rattle of a curtain being pulled back.

“Dinky! Get down from there!”

“But mom, she was calling your name!”

“Derpy?” asked Storm Shadow, recognising the voice. She tried to open her eyes.

“Hey, roomie! How are you feeling?”

“I, uh, can’t see,” said Storm Shadow, reaching up to her face. Her head was bandaged, pads taped over each eye. A pair of hooves gently touched hers, pushing them down, away from her face.

“It’s OK, the docs just wanted to cover them up. You were flash-blinded by the lightning bolt; your eyesight should recover soon. What about the rest of you?”

Storm Shadow moved each leg, feeling twinges and aches but nothing major. An attempt to move her right wing was met with a sharp stab of pain.

“Just my wing, I think. What about you?”

“Just some cuts and bruises, a minor sprain in my wing. The lightning strike – the first one, I mean – burned a few feathers and gave me bad muscle spasms for a while, but I should be out of here tomorrow and airborne again soon after. Sparkler, could you take Dinky and get the doctor for me, please, and tell him Miss Shadow is awake.”

“Sure, mom.”

“OK!”

Storm Shadow heard the filly’s hooves rattle onto the tiled floor and out through the doorway, followed by slightly heavier
hoofsteps at a more dignified pace.

“I- I just wanted to thank you, Storm, for saving me,” continued Derpy once her daughters were out of earshot. “I was falling, my wings were spasming from the electricity... I didn’t think I was going to make it. Then you caught me.”

Derpy laid her hoof in Storm Shadow’s.

“Hey, you saved me, too. Wrapping yourself around me like that, you crazy mare, you could have been killed! And that’s not even mentioning that we’d have flown right into that lightning bolt if you hadn’t swerved us. How did you know where it would strike?”

Storm Shadow could imagine Derpy’s bashful face.

“I just, well, I felt it. The way the air moved, the feel of the electricity in the air, the thermals. I could feel where it would go a few seconds before it did.”

“Ah, you’re awake! How are you feeling?” That was a new voice, a stallion.

“Uh, just my wing, and my eyes,” said Storm Shadow.

“The wing was badly twisted on impact, you’ll have to stay off them for a few days. As for your eyes, well, let’s take a look.”
Storm Shadow felt the bandage around her head being unwound, then the left pad was lifted. She cracked the eyelid open to see a somewhat blurry fawn-coated unicorn stallion peering closely at her through a pair of rimless glasses.

“Now, follow the light, please.”

The tip of his horn lit up with a gentle yellow light and he moved his head around her, tracking her eyes’ movement. Another quick blip of magic uncovered her other eye and the test was repeated. He nodded, satisfied, then replaced the pads over her eyes again.

“Looks like they’re coming along nicely. We’ll leave them bandaged overnight but we should be able to take them off in the morning. For now, you should get some rest.”

She listened to his hoofsteps as he walked away, then heard him speaking out in the hallway.

“All of you? Good heavens, very well, but keep it short, they need their rest.”

A veritable stampede of hoofsteps could be heard, along with a cacophony of voices as numerous ponies rushed into the room. Storm Shadow felt her shoulderblades trying to dig their way through the headboard of the bed at the chorus of greetings and clamour of questions.

“Hey, HEY!” called Derpy. “For Celestia’s sake, everypony, keep it down! Her eyes are still bandaged, and barging in here mob-hoofed isn’t helping matters!”

There was a stunned silence for a few seconds before anypony dared speak.

“Now, I’m going to go and stretch my legs with my daughters. And maybe find a muffin.”

Storm Shadow felt the air move around her ear as Derpy leaned in close to whisper to her.

“Besides, the other doctor who was here earlier was really cute, I’m sure he’s around here somewhere. I wonder if he’s single. And if he likes foals...”

She cleared her throat and spoke out loud again.

“Remember, one at time!”

With that, Derpy and her daughters were gone in a patter of hoofsteps.

“Uh, sorry, Stormy,” said Rainbow Dash. “How are you feeling?”

“I’ll be OK in a few days,” said Storm Shadow. “How is everyone? What happened with the storm?”

“We’re all fine,” - that was Blossomforth – “The boss pulled a sonic rainboom and dumped most of the rest of the rain straight into the valley.”

“I’ve not found a storm yet that can take a sonic rainboom right in the teeth and keep going,” said Rainbow Dash, proudly.
“We filled Solar Glory pretty effectively; the engineers were a bit worried about getting it all at once but they released some outflow down into the river and topped off the three smaller reservoirs in the valley as well. Mission accomplished.”

“Well, part one, at least,” said Storm Shadow.

“Part one? What do you mean?” asked Thunderlane.

“I, uh, I’ll tell you later,” said Rainbow Dash. “Guys, we’d better go and let her rest.”

Storm Shadow listened to the weather team ponies badgering Rainbow Dash as she rapidly retreated into the hallway.

“Anyone still here?” asked Storm Shadow.

“Uh, hi, it’s Twilight Sparkle,” said Twilight. “And I’ve got Spike here.”

“Hey, guys, thanks for dropping by.”

“We’re glad you’re OK; I could hear parts of what happened through the crystal, I was so worried.”

Storm Shadow nodded. “Yeah, after the lightning strike, I could hear everypony talk but I don’t think they could hear me.”

“Fascinating,” replied Twilight, “Bright Spark postulated that lightning might interfere with electromagics in his paper in Applied Whizbangery last year. Do go on.”

Storm Shadow paused, hearing a strange scratching noise. “Are you taking notes?”

“Uh.”

There was a sound of a saddlebag being opened and several items being hurriedly stuffed inside. “Come to think of it, why don’t we talk after you get out of here, I’d love to hear more.”

“Sure thing, Twilight,” replied Storm Shadow, stifling a laugh.

“Come along, Spike, we should let her rest.”

“OK, Twilight, I’ll be right along.”

There were more hoofsteps as the unicorn wandered out of the room.

“Uh, Miss Shadow?” asked a hesitant voice.

“What is it, Spike?”

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about the whole hitpony thing.”

“Thanks, Spike. I’m sorry about the whole implying-you’d-burn-down-the-library thing.”

“Ah, it’s OK. Is there anything I can do for you before we go?”

“Actually, Twilight mentioned you’re quite the scribe, and you write letters for her?”

There was a slight sensation of weight on her rear hooves as Spike climbed onto the end of the bed. She heard a scroll being unravelled.

“Ready!”

“Dear Dad, now don’t panic or anything, I’m fine, but I’m in hospital...”

---

Storm Shadow stood in the crowd of pegasi in the library and watched with amusement as Rainbow Dash pushed a familiar butter-yellow Pegasus through the door, wearing what looked like a tree costume. She shared an inquisitive glance with Blossomforth.

“With those guys, I find it’s best not to ask,” said Blossomforth in response to the raised eyebrow.

Storm Shadow shook her head and smiled. She’d been released from the hospital that morning with a reasonably clean bill of health, eyes still a little sore but functioning fine and the wing sprain healing, slowly. Of course, she still had to stay grounded for a few days, much to her annoyance, but it could have been much, much worse. Best of all, though, her father had pulled through for her yet again, and managed to arrange the substitute observer / wingpower referee as requested. Sometimes, being a Storm Chaser had its advantages.

With a shake of her head, Rainbow Dash hit the light switch and nodded to Spike, standing by the projector. Storm Shadow looked across at the screen as the numbers counted down – she’d seen this movie countless times before but the old-fashioned narration and animation always made her smile.

“Every living thing relies on the life-giving nourishment of rainwater...”

Author's Note:

Well, there she is - my second MLP fanfic is complete. Yeah, second - I started what would become A Gathering Storm as a bit of a palate cleanser after getting stuck with my first fic, which was about Rainbow Dash's mother (hence the reference in Ch1/2). Maybe I'll get back to writing it at some point.

I hope you enjoyed it, and please do leave feedback via comment, or, if you prefer, via PM.

While this story ends here (I'm considering an Epilogue or one-shot that deals with Hurricane Fluttershy directly from Storm Shadow's viewpoint), I do intend to write more about the Storm Chasers, and possibly about Storm Shadow herself. I suspect Cirrostratus might stick his snout into his daughter's life again, too.

And so, thanks go to the guys and gals of #EquestrianStudy, especially to Sagebrush, who helped out with editing on the first couple of chapters. There are a couple of nods in the story to other fanfics, but I would like to thank Chengar Qordath and Comma-Kazie (and now, other authors) for their work on the Winningverse stories. This is most definitely not a Winningverse story, but the makeup of the team and Blossomforth's place in it (I almost put Cloud Kicker as Rainbow's second on the mission, but resisted the temptation) were definitely influenced by that most bang-happy of pony's stories.

Comments

[i_am_the_jam]

Maybe Twilight should have noted that she heard cracks or pops every time there was a lightning strike.

[DarkStratos]

Ha, nice job of ending it with the old video clip they showed in hurricane fluttershy.

[AntiquatedAnnomaly]

Very nice. I love it when stories work around the episodes of the show instead of ignoring them, or just having all their events take place afterwords. It's something I have/am trying to do in my own writing. This was a nice little story I was kind of hoping for a longer more involved plot with Derpy, but what you did was satisfactory.