Storm of the Century of the Week (Sun Riser) [Dead]

[waxworks]

"ALRIGHT WEATHERPONIES, LISTEN UP!"

The forepony of the Blizzard Division was a barrel shaped blowhard of a pegasus, and on dark nights he could be casually mistaken for a pony pinata that had been crudely made. But he was a blowhard, and when your division was responsible for the Winter winds that whipped through Equestria, you were expected to be as such. They were under quota, and that sent an itch into his brain. One he simply couldn't scratch no matter which hole in his head he went at it through. The season was going to be over soon and there had been some slacking off on the snow, some laziness in the icing, and general excuses about hectic events in Equestria disturbing the season.

He was having none of it.

He'd put out an emergency bulletin to every department, even the lesser used groups like the humidity teamsters, the fogmasters, even the maintenance ponies were there. The Winter Weather ponies were ramping themselves up for one massive snowstorm to bring up their numbers in a big way, and that meant overtime, and extra workers. Of course the Weather Factory wasn't some sort of mad regime, so really this was an impassioned plea from the forepony of the Blizzard division for some extra help rather than a wild mandate, but he always liked to picture himself ordering his eager troops about.

The bay was filled with all manner of pegasus pony, and standing somewhere not exactly near the center (she had been very deliberate about deciding where to stand) was a particularly large pegasus, with mismatched colorations and eyes. Galvanic Reaction was with the wind division, and her normal routine was powering the Wind Mill, but she did enjoy joining in on a big storm when she could. Of course she could do without all of the enforced camaraderie of it all but...

...she thought to herself about things. After rekindling her friendship with a particular foalhood friend, she suddenly found she had very little to talk about aside from things she'd read in books. True there were still everyday things but she had an overwhelming urge to tell her friend stories. Other than mostly working on the mill wheel or resting in her room, she didn't lead that exciting a life. So, as part of the new, bold and dynamic Galvanic Reaction, she was working to actually do things you could talk about later.

"We need STRONG, TOUGH, ABLE PONIES, to show Equestria the biggest blizzard in history! We need blowers, we need icers, we need slushers and snowstormers, blinders and blanketers, ponies, which of you is going to help lead the charge into blinding white history?!"

Galvanic shrugged a large shoulder and raised a hoof nonchalantly. It'd make for a good story, she was sure of it.

[Sun Riser]

   Standing near the end of the row of ponies, next to a shaky stallion that looked like he was going to burst into tears; stood a dusty brown mare. The wind tussled her messy blue mane here and there, and even threw it against her face a few times. Without even bothering to move a large hoof to brush her mane away from her face, she heard the forepony command attention. With that, she slumped, keeping her ears pricked despite the fact that she despised her job.
   Being selected to be part of a big snow storm was not particularly one of Storm's favorites. What was the use of rain if it was packed into large, destructive chunks? Also, she slacked off quite a bit, she even doses off once in a while, dreaming about her dream job as a Wonderbolt. She had almost lost her job a few times, leaving her to wonder how she even got into this storm.
   The forepony bellowed the needed jobs in an encouraging coach-ly way, explaining how the storm force needed "strong, tough able ponies" for the blizzard. Stormy Flee yawned and squirmed uncomfortably in her uniform, lifting her back hoof to scratch behind her wing. A blizzard huh? It's better make it onto the papers or color me unimpressed. Storm thought with an annoyed look on her face, eyes closed with one twitching eye.
Getting a bit restless, Stormy started grinding her hooves into the cloud, which amazingly managed to stay put. When she was done with that, she flexed her wings, getting even more restless with every move she did.
   The forepony noticed this. "OKAY! Pegasi, take to the skies! Create the biggest blizzard I have ever seen! Impress me! And don't you dare chicken out!" With that, the forepony took off without another word, leaving the others to take off as soon as they were ready.
   Pfft. Well, here we go. Storm thought enthusiastically. Then stretched her large wings and flew to greet the sky.

[waxworks]

While the weather factory was now buzzing like a hive full of angry bees due to the eagerness of most of those involved, the forepony and his assistants were wildly trying to give orders to the enthusiastic pegasi that were rocketing out of the building. Some of the senior weatherponies were directing each of them towards larger groups that were each in charge of a different necessary aspect. Of course they needed chilled rainclouds, that was always important. There was a mill-like room that ran a large refrigeration machine, and one of the managers was offering this position to Galvanic while she stared at him icily.

"I just figured you normally work the mill wheel so-"

She continued to stare. He could feel the fur on the end of his snout starting to frost up.

"Point me to the storm team."

He nodded with some relief and pointed a hoof to the sky, where another pegasus was barking out orders to a flying group. Her wings snapped out and she shot off the ground with the grace of a cast-iron bathtub shot out of a cannon.

"ALRIGHT, STORM GROUP FIVE, YOU'RE IN TROTTINGHAM, THAT WAY. STORM GROUP SIX, YOU'RE IN APPLEOOSA. YES APPLEOOSA, WON'T THEY BE SURPRISED? STORM GROUP SEVEN, PONYVILLE."

Galvanic's ears wiggled. Ponyville. Talking about making a huge blizzard was good, but being able to take Rivet for a walk in it sounded even better. She shot over towards Storm Group Seven, an eager smirk hammered onto her face as she blasted past a pegasus mare with a splotchy light blue mane.

The sky around Cloudsdale had grown dark, and rather ominous. Galvanic always loved how it looked around there just before a big storm, so full of energy, like everything was getting ready to explode.

[Sun Riser]

   There were so many pegasi flying around Storm that she was sure that she had almost missed the orders. Lucky for her, a pegasus was booming out orders, even louder than Storm herself. Storm's ears pricked as she heard that her target was Ponyville. Hmm, so snow's coming to town. She thought. Sun Riser would be quite happy if she lived in Ponyville about now. Storm pushed the thought aside as the sky around her dimmed. Here comes the storm. Storm happily thought with a strange grin spreading out on her face.
   A sharp whistle came from the busting crowd, and the pegasi went to their job. Pegasi of all shape, size and color flew everywhere in a rush to move their assigned clouds to a certain place. Flapping her large wings, Storm tackled a large cloud to quickly shove it into a place above Ponyville. Stormy turned to give it a strong kick, but was interrupted by a loud chirp.
   "Hi~!" A skinny pegasus yelled, making Storm flinch.
   "Go away!" Storm turned to face the pegasus that almost gave her a heart attack. As Storm turned, she looked down to see a small orange pegasus. "Oh, it's you Sunny. I'm surprised I couldn't recognize your voice," Storm frowned.
   "Can I help? And what are you doing?" Sunny chirped cheerfully, her eyes shining.
   "No, Sunny, and we're making a blizzard," Storm said calmly, yet was a bit annoyed. Storm saw that Sun wasn't wearing a uniform. "The forepony won't allow you to help without a uniform anyway. Go fly down to Ponyville to wait for the storm or something," Storm said, getting more and more annoyed.
   Sunny frowned and slowly descended to Ponyville.
   Storm scoffed, then turned once again to kick the cloud. It made a small, thundering sound, then released a flurry of snow. "Well, that's done." Storm said to herself. Storm felt that the blizzard needed a few more clouds if it were to be considered a blizzard. She flew back to the ominous pile of clouds wrapping around Cloudsdale, only to bump into a large mare. Storm was knocked back a few flaps, "Hey! Watch where you're goin'!" Storm fumed at the multi-colored pony, who happened to seem quite content, inner happiness shone in her mismatched eyes.

[waxworks]

Of all of the storm making activities, cloud wrangling had always been one of Galvanic's favorites. And lightning bucking. And rain stomping. Everything really, she couldn't actively think of an aspect of storms that she didn't like, and this was a pony that had been struck by lightning a few times. While the flocks of pegasus ponies shot through the air to their destinations, more managerial ponies sorted out orders and distributed directions to which clouds went where. Watching a cloud get siphoned was amazing, it took a group of ponies making a horizontal cyclone to make a high-speed shunt to get a cloud from Cloudsdale to its target with a minimal loss of temperature and energy from the clouds in question. Of course normally a good breeze from the Wind Mill could do the trick, but when you were in a hurry a cyclone shunt was the only way to go.

Galvanic grinned and shot into a loop, lopping off a big slice of overloaded cloud, forming a sort of high-speed pitch in midair. The twitching ball of snow and ice whirled in the air before the large pegasus drew it past with a slipstream from her wings, and then gave it a vicious kick to unbuckle it into the air, an explosion of snow spiraling over a section of the town. Not bad, she thought to herself, not bad at all. We haven't even really gotten started, and this is turning out to be a... pegasus out of uniform.

Pegasus out of uniform? She peered through the hordes of hard working pegasus ponies to see an orange pegasus drifting away towards the town. She couldn't have been one of theirs, could she? Even when you were running late, you took the time to put on your uniform, especially for something as big and important as the last big snowstorm of the season. It was while she was considering this, flying one way while looking another, that she slammed chest-first into a blue-manged pegasus with a light brown pelt and got herself an earful.

"Hey! Watch where you're goin'!"

She didn't like that, and she certainly wasn't used to that sort of reaction. Being a big pegasus she was used to the smaller ponies clearing out of her way, and she most certainly didn't like being accused of being careless, especially right when she was busy not looking where she was going.

"Where I'm going? Why don't you watch where you're going. Some of us have work to do."

Galvanic's internal sensors winced. That wasn't a very clever response, she was sure of it, but others were saying it was too mean all things considered, where another reminded her she should just get back to work.

[Sun Riser]

 (Sorry that I've been away for so long. X( Homework totally controls my life.)
   She mix-matched pegasus that Storm had just bumped into had spat out a retort. Storm's head twitched back at the remark, which had about the same ferocity of hers. She twitched a nostril, feeling a bit annoyed with how the other responded so well. "Oh, you can see the flying horde of pegasi flying here and there too? I thought only I could," Storm said in a sarcastic drawl, snorting then spitting out a wobbly glob to the ground far below. Storm did agree that most of the pegasi here had work to do, Most of them... She thought, throwing the quickest glance to the happy-go-lucky bright orange pegasi innocently floating towards Ponyville. Yet, she did not want to seem weak, so Storm looked at the pony right in the eyes.
   Having lost her train of thought, Storm blurted out "I'm Stormy Flee. You?" Storm mentally slapped herself. Well, there goes my tough image. She sighed, as she had already said it, she might as well as go along with it. Storm went back to giving the pegasus a menacing glare, right into the deep, mix-matched orbs.
   Even though what had happened, Storm still tried to go along with two plans, one was to get to know the pony, the other was to regain her stature. She hovered, thinking deeply all-the-while maintaining a deep stare at the pony's eyes. Ugh, Storm you idiot! What should I do now?! I already yelled at her, then I had said hello! Which way to go? Storm closed her eyes, cutting off her menacing glare. She unaware of what to do next.
   

[waxworks]

Galvanic's eyebrow rose like a mountain peak jutting out of the clouds, suddenly appearing in the path of a jumbo jet. It wasn't often that a retort was followed up with a genial, albeit slightly misplaced, introduction. It was amidst the whirling and busy pegasi that were still zipping back and forth, that Galvanic weighed her options cautiously. Blurted introductions usually meant nervousness. Nervousness meant uncertainty, and uncertainty meant if she wanted to she could really, really tear into this pegasus. Her brain chewed on this thought like a dog chewing on an old, well seasoned bone, when there was a slight 'ahem' from another corner of her mind.

This corner of her mind was occupied by one of her mental guards, who typically had a picture of her friend Rivet Stitch on its desk. Although now it had a picture of Rivet, a smaller one of Powderkeg, and a few collectible playing cards of the other ponies she'd met in her visits to Ponyville. It was tapping a little plaque on the desk that said, "Friendship" quite plainly. The other things in her brain looked mildly annoyed.

"Galvanic," she said, letting the words form and drop like an icicle, with such realism that some pegasus ponies below them were in danger of getting an icy jab. She felt a hoof stomping in her brain, like an angered upstairs apartment neighbor. With a mild sigh she tried to dredge up her ethics of friendship, rusty and unused as they were.

"So..."

Well that's a great start, she thought to herself, I can tell we'll be feathered friends in no time at all....

"You with the storm team?"

Aaand a stupid question on top of that. She's wearing a uniform, in the middle of a snowstorm. You're a pro. Galvanic grimaced, oh shut it, I'm doing fine.

The large pegasus stretched her neck, and felt several satisfying pops issue from it, like she was snapping off the nagging sensations in her mind. She wedged herself higher into the air, closer to a churning gray cloud that was bloated with snow. "Want to give me a hoof with this?"

[Sun Riser]

   Storm also raised an eyebrow when Galvanic had, as both seemed to be idiotically confused at each other. Storm watched as the large pegasus thought for awhile, then flinched a bit when she received a name, not a quick nudge aside. Well this is going... well. Storm thought looking at the Galvanic in the eyes. Storm nodded to the question that had been asked, "Well, we are making the same storm right? Or am I making my own little flurry?" Storm sighed, then pushed both the question and her answer away. Try to make a friend that's not as happy go lucky as a certain wimpy pegasus I know. Storm encouraged herself, trying to ignore the rough start. 
   With a furious shake of her head, she agreed to help Galvanic with the cloud. As they flew over, the cloud seemed to darken in color. Soon enough it was sticking out like a sore thumb. That's pretty strange. Storm thought Even though a dark storm cloud could be seen as normal, this certain one seemed to be a looming hulk of shadows. Even with every mere bump from the frailest pegasus would make quite a few snowflakes fall here and there.
   A determined smirk spread across Storm's face. This is going to be fun. She grinned. Storm did a quick signal with her left wing to show Galvanic that she was prepared to move the humongous cloud. Bubbling with anticipation, (even though she practically hates her job) she started to heave the bulk of the cloud to it's designated spot.

[waxworks]

"There's nothing little about this one," said Galvanic, a minute smile playing along the edges of her mouth. The storm cloud was pulsing ominously, like some sort of snow filled pustule just waiting to burst. Galvanic asked her brain why exactly it had given her that particular mental image and it just sent back a short written apology.

"Right. So this cloud's rip roaring to go, but we try to push it and we're just going to get frosted from head to hoof. You know the drill. We need to make a polar pegasus vortex."

Around them other pegasus ponies were engaging in similar activities. Twitching storm clouds were as fragile as eggs, especially when they were full to bursting like these ones were. Pushing them was no good, as an unfortunate rookie pegasus found out a moment later, zipping past Storm and Galvanic to push his own cloud, only to emerge as a confused looking snowpony on the other side. The more experienced ponies were moving in carefully aligned corkscrews, similar to how they'd pull water into the air from a chosen pond to get the year's rainwater. It was easy with a dozen pegasus ponies, but still entirely possible with two.

Galvanic flapped up to one side of the cloud and eyed Storm with the same sort of scanning appraise that was usually reserved for bar codes at the supermarket. "Careful with those hooves! You poke this thing it'll pop!"

The large pony flew above the cloud towards Storm, making a circular motion with her hoof to indicate the direction they needed to go around the cloud in to drag it along as she drew closer and closer towards her.

[Sun Riser]

   For once, it seemed as Storm was actually enjoying a task that had been given to her. She was actually "enjoying" the task to such an extent that she had almost forgot about how large and unstable the large cloud was. A quick holler from Galvanic reminded Storm of the situation.
   Storm blinked a few times then mentally slapped herself to clear her mind. Taking a few glances around her, she made sure the cloud was stable and others were safe. Storm let out a deep breath, she saw Galvanic give a quick hoof-signal to indicate where they should go. Storm nodded to show that she had noted the direction and advanced so.
   Because of her outrageous size, the slightest move made a few snowflakes descend from the cloud. I don't think that's very good... What will happen if there were two large pegasi moving the cloud? Storm pondered. She thought of saying something to Galvanic before it was too late, but she saw they were almost to their destination and decided to keep her mouth shut.
   Trying to stay on track and to keep the enormous cloud from extravagantly exploding deemed a difficult task. Storm gritted her teeth as the wind ruffled her hair and nipped her wings. I... We, yeah, sure, we can make it. This cloud's no toughie, it's just a cloud. Storm smirked as she encouraged herself.
   Yet the smirk did not last for long, as a stout pegasus, the one that had failed to move a large cloud himself, blindly bumped into the cloud. A very small and weak bump that wouldn't had even hurt a fly, but enough to burst a shaky cloud.
   The cloud burst, dispersing snow everywhere, coating Galvanic and Storm in chilly white powder and covering the other pegasus with more snow.
   Storm felt quite irritated, as they had almost gotten over Ponyville, so close to the great blast of snow everypony -especially a skinny orange pegasus- had anticipated. With a snarl, Storm turned. "What are you doing? That was practically the largest cloud in the whole pack! It was the main cloud to bring the blizzard! And you had burst it like it was nothing!" Storm's eyes burned with a fire that seemed to melt the snow off the rest of her face. Storm's fiery temper filled the other pegasus with fear, with a whimper, he had slowly hovered away.
   Storm turned to Galvanic. "Well, that happened," She stated calmly, the fire in her eyes had disappeared, yet Storm was still about to burst with fury.

[waxworks]

In your typical science fiction space opera, there was generally a time when you'd see the crew flying around through the air when the ship was violently thrown to one side, loud klaxxons screaming through the air, flashing red lights illuminating the walls. This was the situation inside of Galvanic's head right now. The biggest snow cloud in the bunch, gone. In one big puff, and it was gone. Snow fled from Galvanic's face as her eyes snapped open. If it was possible for snow to flee in mortal terror, it was doing so now.

"It's everywhere!" Howled an ensign in her head.

"WE'VE GOT TO PURSUE THAT PONY AND CRUSH HIM," yelled another mental figment, beating on a control panel.

"I'm sorry, I screwed up, I should've predicted the path of the cloud," came another.

"Shut it," said Galvanic. It was addressed internally but she spoke it aloud as well, so Storm got a heaping helping of it too. It was a steaming, commanding voice that spoke of unrelenting dedication. This was the last snowstorm of the season, and they weren't about to fail now.

Her eye swung towards the descending snow. They were so close. Ponyville was just over that way. Just a little push, that's all it needed. They didn't have the cloud anymore but...

Galvanic sprouted a wicked grin and flashed her eyes to Storm. There was pure electricity in her expression, snow seeming to vibrate right off of her. "It's supposed to be a blizzard, isn't it? So who's going to care about some intense wind? Come on Stormy, let's make a blizzard."

The big pegasus swung off backwards into a neck-breaking nosedive, dropping beneath the snowfall and swinging back up just before her hooves clipped the treetops. They were going to move it without a cloud, they were going to move it with a cyclone.

[Sun Riser]

   Stormy watched as Galvanic went to war with herself, her eyes darting back and forth, with her facial expressions drastically changing every second. Storm truly did not know how to react to this, because she had only recalled Sun Riser doing it once or twice, and really, Storm didn't really want to get caught up in the battle. So without a word, Storm just stood there, mouth slightly agape.
   What are you doing you idiot? A raging little voice screeched in her head. Storm tried to shake the voice away, as to not look like the busy bee that Galvanic currently look like. Even through her efforts to keep the voice at bay, it continued, Are you ignoring me?! Go hunt down that wimpy pegasus and give him a good what fo-
   Surprisingly, the voice was cut off by a audible mumble from Galvanic. Glad that she wasn't being ordered around by her "anti-conscience" anymore, Storm took another look at Galvanic. Galvanic's face was no longer burdened and in space, there was now a large grin that seemed to withhold the daftness and cruelty of a young child. While Storm was trying to decipher what the devilish grin meant, Galvanic spoke.
   Storm listened to the plan, which really wasn't a plan, more of a declaration of a blizzard... In some way. Storm was intrigued by Galvanic's sudden behavior change and thought of what dangerous plan could emerge from it.
   "Hmp, well, it's a blizzard they want right? Then a blizzard they'll get!" Storm cracked a smile, which seemed to parrot Galvanic's childish grin. 
   With a whoosh, Galvanic was already quite far ahead of Storm, catching her off guard. "Woah!" Storm exclaimed out of pure excitement and surprise, "Don't wait up!" Storm said with another dastardly grin, quickly taking off after Galvanic.
   As she eventually caught up to Galvanic, she looked over to the mismatched mare and yelled, "So, how are we to move this amount of snow to Ponyville?" Oh, sure. Storm was very aware of how close Ponyville was compared to their and the storm's current location, yet to move snow without the use of a cloud could be quite difficult. As she waited for an answer, Stormy thought of some quite "creative" ways to move the snow, which made her giggle like a little foal.

[waxworks]

The air was cold around the mass of gently falling snow. It was like watching an ice cream truck explode in slow motion, only without the sound of jingling bells and a panicked driver propelled by explosion. The coldness intensified as Galvanic screamed past the entirety of it, eyes fixed into a wincing glare as snowflakes spattered against her cheeks and muzzle. Stormy caught up to her just in time as she shot her wings out and pulled up hard, belting up under the mass of snow and climbing back up through the air.

As she came to the peak she bowled back down propelled by several powerful flaps, arching her back and tail as she came towards Stormy again. She called out to the other weatherpony as she shot past again and repeated this corkscrewing motion.

"We've got to get the storm to Ponyville! If we can't use the stormcloud, then we're going to make it one heck of a blizzard! We'll use a tornado to suck the snow up and funnel it to Ponyville in one big windy blast! It's going to be a really nasty blizzard, but what's the last snowstorm of the year good for if we can't get school closed for the little ponies just one more time? Now put your wings into it!!"

She grinned as she looped around again, the snow just starting to swirl in a more directed fashion. Something about using an intense blast of weather to get a day off for every little pony in Ponyville put her in a somewhat nostalgic, cheery mood.