Heart of the storm

by Sebbaa

Storm of the century

Storm of the century
She looked over to Stormheart when he didn't move at once. He was staring hard at the horizon. “Can you see that?” he asked and pointed his hoof.
She rose an eyebrow but followed his hoof with her gaze. He was pointing at the Everfree Forest and the mountain range beyond. Nothing she hadn't seen before... expect for the pitch black clouds covering all of the horizon and the single pegasus speeding for Ponyville. She looked harder. The clouds were actually moving closer and if she were not mistaken, that pegasus was Ditzy Doo.
“Something's wrong. Got to check it out.” Rainbow exclaimed and shot of. Stormheart gathered himself up and promptly followed her.

The fastest flier in all of Equestria quickly intercepted the gray coated male mare. Ditzy was panting heavily and covered in sweat. She had clearly been pushing herself beyond her limits.
“Whats wrong Ditzy. You OK?” Rainbow asked, yelling against the strong airstream.
The gray pegasus shot her a quick glance, than looked ahead again. But that was all it took for Dash to know that something was very wrong. Ditzys eyes were properly aligned. Normally her eyes were rolling all over the place. It took the mare some real effort to get them both to look at the same direction. And that meant there was either a fashion show she wanted to look at or a world threatening crisis.

“Got.. pant... to.. huff... warn...huff... town... pant... thunderbirds.” she explained between gasps of air.
“What?”
“THUNDERBIRDS!” Ditzy yelled. It made Dash stop in midair and take another look at the approaching storm.

Stormheart took the opportunity to catch up with her.
“So whats up?” he asked.
Dash was looking very hard at the clouds, shading her eyes with one hoof. “Something about thunderbirds.” she muttered. The information made Storm gasp in wonder. He followed Dashs gaze and scanned the clouds for anything out of the ordinary.

Soon they could make out their forms at the edge of the storm. Creatures made out of lightning and wind. They had the rough shape of giant birds and they were riding the gale at tempests edge.

“We have to tell Twilight and the others! Come on!” Rainbow explained and shot off for Ponyville. The blue colt followed hard on her heels, giving his all to keep up.

When they arrived at the library tree, the others were already outside. They had saddlebags on their backs and were ready to head out.
“Girls! There are thunderbirds approaching. They ride a freaking big storm headed for Ponyville!” Dash yelled as she arrived. She quickly landed in front of the others.
“We know.” Twilight replied, “Ditzy just got here and warned the town. We got ready to intercept them as fast as we could.”
“So whats the plan?” Dash inquired confident.
“Well we did not have much time to prepare, so I could not read up on thunderbirds.” the lavender unicorn admitted, “but I'm sure between the six of us, we can work something out. I am going to do what I do best: lecture them! If that fails dear Fluttershy can stare them down and make them see the error of their ways.”
“And Rarity can whine till they give up, Applejack will try to buck them into next year, Pinkie does whatever Pinkie does, and I clean their sky in ten seconds flat.” Rainbow Dash finished for her.
“Yup, we just make it up, as we go, like we always do.” Applejack summed up. She began trotting ahead.
“Come on everypony! We ain't got time to lose.” she exclaimed. The other followed her example and set off.

They had not come more then twenty meters, when Stormheart arrived at the scene, panting. He landed to catch his breath.
“Wait.” he huffed, “where... pant... are you going.”

The six mares shot glances at them. It was Twilight who spoke up: “Sorry, no time, we are in a hurry.” With that five of them galloped on. Only Rainbow stayed back. She could catch up with the rest in no time, so she took a moment to explain the situation to her finest recruit.

“The six of us will go and drive of those thunderbirds. You better stay here and.... eh keep watch.” she said with a confident smile.
“The six of you?” Storm inquired worried, “shouldn’t we wait for the Royal Guard or even the Princesses. Those birds looked very dangerous.”
Dash waved it off. “It's no big deal. Between the six of us we have defeated Nightmare Moon and Discord, put an Ursa Minor back to sleep, made Diamond Dogs give us their treasure and stared down a cockatrice. Dragons fear our name!” she explained proudly.

Storm considered this for a second. Sure, Dash was prone to overstate her deeds and abilities. That did not make them any less astonishing though. Twilight had a dragon familiar, AJ was probably one of the strongest ponies alive. He didn't know about Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy though. Oh well, Dash seemed confided enough.
“Alright.” he gave in with a sigh. “Just be careful OK?” he demanded worried.

That made Dash smile warmly. She ruffled his hair with her hoof. “Oh come on, have some faith in your sergeant. We will be back before you know it. See you later!” With that she took off making haste to catch up with the others.

Stormheart let his head sink and shuffled into the library. He felt useless and powerless. He hated being useless and powerless. Maybe he could find some book to keep his mind off things.

As he entered the library he saw nopony around. He could hear Spike from the kitchen though. The little dragon was probably preparing some food, maybe bananacaramelchocolatecookies or something. He headed for the novel section of the library. Some adventure story would be a good read right now.

Suddenly three cloaked figures came out of nowhere and tackled him from the side. It was an ambush! Before he knew it, he was pinned to the ground and merciless hooves tickled his exposed belly.
“Ahg, stop it. I.... I yield, I YIELD!” he yelled as he laughed involuntarily. Slowly the attacks stopped and his assailants let go of his legs.

When he regained his hooves, he was looking at the three angry faces of certain fillies he knew. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had caught him off guard and now they stared at him expectantly. They were even wearing their cloaks! He sighed heavily. It was time to come clear. He let his ears and head sink.
“I am sorry I made that storm and endangered you. I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know anypony was there. And I am sorry I lied to you about my cutie mark. I am no search and rescue pony, my stupid special talent is making storms.” he said as apology and explanation and it came from his heart.

For several moments after his explanation they stared him down angrily and he shrunk even further to the ground. Then they looked at each other, nodded and faced him again.
Apple Bloom spoke up: “Well don't do it again!”
“Or we will banish you and put you in prison the place we banish you too!” Scootaloo threatened gravely.
“Yea. And then we will turn you to stone!” Sweetie Belle added foreboding. “Forever!”

Storm looked at the three and was stunned. Their serious manner faded, they were trying their best to hold it back, but it was to no avail. The three broke out in laughter. The colt joined in soon after, he was visibly relieved.
“So you don't hate me?” he finally asked when he recovered enough to speak.
The three crusaders tackled him again before he could brace himself. He was pinned to the ground again, but this time embraced in an group hug.

“Of course we don't hate you stupid.” Scootaloo exclaimed with a defiant smile.
“Anypony can make mistakes. You have to give them a chance to make up for it and your friends wont let you down. They will learn from their errors an become better ponies.” Sweetie Belle told him, reciting a lesson about friendship she had learned from Rarity and her friends.
“Yea! And what kind of crusaders would we be if we hated our own brother in arms.” Apple Bloom finished with a wide smile.

The last sentence gave the colt pause. He got to his hooves as he was entangled from the hug.
“Brother in arms?” he asked raising an eyebrow. The Cutie Mark Crusaders gathered in front of him, all of them carrying a knowing smile. They looked at each other for a second and nodded in agreement.

Scootaloo spoke up first: “The three of us decided to make you a member of our secret society.” She tried to speak very solemnly but went a bit over the top.
“But since you already got your cutie mark, we could not make you a Cutie Mark Crusader.” Sweetie Belle explained in the same manner.
“But than I head an idea.” Apple Bloom told him, grinning so widely, he feared her face would split.

But she hid her grin at once. All three fillies put on serious faces as they gathered around him. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo took place on his sides, facing him. Their eyes were closed, their heads held impossibly high. Sweetie Belle was standing in front of him in the same manner. She cleared her throat before she spoke up.

“Stormheart of Cloudsdale. Kneel before us!” she exclaimed ceremonial.

At first the blue colt did not know what was going on. But when the little unicorn spoke those words, he quickly caught on. He shot a quick glance at the three of them, grinning widely. Than he put on his most noble and solemn face and played along. He sunk on his knees and bowed his head in respect. This was just like a scene from one of the stories he liked so much.

Sweetie Belle waited a few seconds for dramatic effect before she continued. The three of them had actual practiced this before, each of them taking the colts and her role in turn.
“I will take your oath. Repeat with me the words of the old code:”
And as she solemnly spoke the words of the old code, Stormheart joined her with fierce determination, he knew them from his mind for they came straight from the legends of the Knights of Equestria:

“A knight is sworn to valor.
His heart knows only virtue.
His hooves defend the helpless.
His might upholds the weak.
His words speaks only truth.
His wrath undoes the wicked!”

After those words were spoken, only Stormheart could keep his face. The fillies could not help but grin happily. They put their act back on when Sweetie Belle cleared her throat and continued.
“With the power given to me, in the name of the sun and the moon, I dub thee Knight of Equestria!” she spoke ceremoniously, her voice rose at the last words.
From behind her she took a cloak, swung it over Stormhearts back and fastened it around his shoulders with a brooch. Now not even the kneeling colt could hide his grin. One last time Sweetie Belle cleared her throat and the four of them hid their smiles.
“Now Sir Stormheart of Cloudsdale. Rise a knight!”

He rose to his hooves as the three fillies stomped the ground with their hooves in applause. With the ceremonies over, non of them could hide their feelings any longer, or had too.
Stormheart was the happiest pony alive. He felt like he could break out in tears of joy. But since a crying knight was unseemly, he suppressed it best as he could. He couldn’t help getting a wet shine in his eyes though.
“Oh this is so awesome! You are so awesome!” he exclaimed and gathered the three in another crushing group hug.
“Thank you so much. You are the best friends a pony can wish for.” he told them and hoped they could not see the tears in his eyes while he hugged them.

The crusaders said nothing and just smiled satisfied. This had worked out better than they had planned. No more words were needed.
When they ended the hug, Stormheart quickly blinked away his tears, hoping no one had seen them. That hope was in vain of course, but none of the fillies mentioned it.

The blue pegasus took a moment to get a look at the cloak they had put on him. It was made of Bordeaux red, thick loden and lined with soft black silk. His new coat of arms was stitched in golden threat on both of his sides. It showed an oak tree, growing under the sun and the moon, on a shield. The brooch that closed the cloak was golden and showed his cutie mark as ornamentation. The whole thing was expertly crafted. It even had holes for his wings, that he put to use as soon as he found them. He noticed that the cloak was actually too big for him. It was something a young pony could grow into. One thing was clear: Somepony had made this with much thought and effort.

“This cloak is amazing! It's like a real knights cloth. It' so cool!” Stormheart exclaimed in wonder. His apparent happiness made the three crusaders very proud of their effort.
“We had my sister Rarity make it. When she heard it was for you she really got into it. I think she still wanted to thank you for saving us.” Sweetie Belle explained.

This gave the blue colt pause. This cloak was perhaps the most generous gift he had ever received. And he got it from somepony who thought him to be something he was not.
“I cannot except this.” he declared sadly and started to undo the cloak.
“Oh no you don't!” Apple Bloom interpreted and caught his hoof before he could fumble with the brooch.
“You can and you will accept this gift Sir Stormheart!” she said sternly.

Scootaloo had an idea. It was brilliant. She got behind the colt and started pushing him to the door.
“If you don't feel you earned your cloak Sir knight you have now the opportunity to proof yourself worthy.” she declared with a mischievous grin. The other fillies quickly caught onto her plan. Sweetie Belle cantered ahead and opened the door, Apple Bloom helped pushing.
“There are six mares out there fighting legendary monsters. They need your help Sir knight.” the little earth pony exclaimed overbearingly dramatic.
“And besides, you got a storm making cutie mark. I am sure you can help them.” Sweetie belle added, thinking more practically.

Soon Stormheart was out in the open and the three fillies blocked the door. There was no way back. The colt sighed in defeat. “Fine, I'll go.” he said annoyed. But then he thought up something better. He straightened himself, raised his head high, pushed his chest out proudly and spread his wings wide for added effect.
“But only because it is my duty as a knight! I am not doing this heroic deeds for fame or fortune!” he exclaimed and now it was his time to make the drama boil over.

The three rolled their eyes. “Just go.” said Scootaloo. But Apple Bloom had a better plan. With a mischievous grin she jumped behind him. “Your lady of the forest is waiting. Go save her!” she said suggestively and with a crack, she whipped him across his haunches with her tail.

The young pegasus jumped into the air in shock and took flight. He was too startled for further words of bravery. Did sweet little Apple Bloom really do what he just thought she did? Did she even know what she had done? He looked back over his shoulder. The three were waving him goodbye. The little red maned filly had the most innocent smile on her face he could imagine. Oh she knew! He blamed Applejack.

Special thanks to StewartSpicer for proofreading.