//-------------------------------------------------------// Gathering Storms -by anicus- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1-A Rumbling Arrival //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1-A Rumbling Arrival In a time long since past, in a world far away, a tragedy strikes that will echo through a world for eons. A memory like a far off dream that began long ago, in the night a terrible storm raged with such force that even a goddess marveled at it and the day the heavens got a master. "Dammit, you didn't have to break his nose," my sister said in anger. "He was sleazeball and an idiot, he was going to hurt you Sara," the elder sibling responded. "I can take care of myself I could have dealt with him," "How would you have? He was built like a truck. Huh? Answer me how?" I returned. "I would have, I don't know done. Something," she replied. "Exactly, you don't know. That’s why I did it. Unlike you, I have learned to judge easily," I replied defensively. "That's it! I have had enough of this. I’m leaving," she said storming out of the kitchen. "Wait, the storm out there is really bad," I tried to stop her, but she was already out the door. "Damn it," I said throwing on my coat heading out the door to look for my sister, but little did I know that this night would change me forever. 3 hours later "Damn, where is she?,” I said, muttering silent curse to myself as I looked for my sister, knowing that the storm was getting worse by the minute. I stopped when I heard a faint crying noise off in the distance, but the was storm making it hard to discern where it was coming from. So I did the only thing he could think of, I started calling her name. "Sara," no answer. "Sara". "Over here". I could barely tell what direction it was coming from. I began sprinting through the forest to where my sister is I just bare- KKKKKKRRRRRRAAAAACCCKKKK-BBBBBBBOOOOOOOMMMM Time seemed to slow as I heard the thunder, only turning to see the tree the lightning struck fall towards me, pinning me to the ground causing me to let out an inhuman roar. AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH Reeling from the pain I didn't notice my sister standing about twenty feet away. "Oh god," my sister said in shock quickly moving over to her injured brother. "Please be okay," the trembling in her voice evident quickly noticing that I was breathing. "Sara are you ok?" I asked wheezing. "Yes. Yes. But are you?" she asked worriedly. "Well I'm certainly not my best, but I’ll survive," I lied knowing I was going die that day. I couldn't move my legs, and I could feel the bone protruding from my right arm and the blood slowly pooling under me. "Now go back to the house and call the emergency number on the fridge." I said, feeling the life beginning to fade from me. "Yes, just don't die on my. Okay?" she said getting up. I gave a weak thumbs up as she began to head back It felt like hours but was only minutes. I felt the cold begin to crawl over my body and the darkness creep up my vision, my final words being. "If there's a god I'm gonna sock him for making her cry," as I finally let the life seep out of me. The first thing I noticed was that I was on some kind of small chunk of land, floating in a white void. In the center of the island was a table with two chairs. One chair was being filled with what I could tell was a horse. I began to make my way over. "Hello," the horse said as I approached. "Hi," I responded reluctantly. "I suppose you are wondering where you are and who I am?" the creature said with a very calm voice. "I guess," I said. "As to where you are, this is a kind of mental place created in the void between worlds, as for me, I am Faust some like to call me maker or even God," Faust said with a air reality. At the mention of the G word i began to tighten the my muscles but before I can act, she spoke. "That is not a wise idea, " she said as her horn began to glow and the image of a couple hundred ways she could deal with me flashed across my mind. "And those are very good reason not," I said losing my fist, shock and a little fear evident in my voice. "Because you don't want to truly harm me you are just worried about your sister," she said, gesturing for me to sit. "I suppose I guess there's a reason you brought me here. What is it?" I said taking the seat, anger still evident on my face but fading. "Down to business I guess," she said, the table in front of us shifted and changed to reveal a map of a world I don't recognize. "This place is my home, my true home, I placed many, what to call them? Spirit's or even wardens on this world to govern and control different properties like fire, ice and forest, but in my foolishness, I thought they would all get along and now they are in the midst of a war so I would like to you not only try and stop this war but also govern a property long since empty," she explained to me. "Now I understand if you wanna think this over-” "I’ll do it " I said without hesitation. "...what?" she said obviously not expecting an answer so fast. "I said I’ll do it," I said with a calmness. "Well I just thought you would take longer is all," she said as she regained her composure. "The way I see it is I owe you for not letting my soul simply vanish or be reborn or whatever. You chose to give me a second chance at life and I’m going to try and do something important with it. So in a sense I owe you for that and I love my sister, but I know I can't be there to protect her forever. So she needs to grow and learn as I person, and she can't do that with me hovering over her shoulder telling her which choice is right or wrong. And while my dad may not be the most responsible or mature or even hygienic person. In no way is he bad. He is reliable, most of the time," I said with more calmness than I should have. "Well okay then all that's left is for you to choose a new name and a form to represent your new ward," she said standing up and with a glow of her horn a portal appeared. "What is my ward as you call it so I can choose my form accordingly," I said getting up and standing next to her. "Storms," she said trying to keep a straight face. "...wonderful," I said pinching the bridge of my nose. "Okay as my form I choose to be a kirin. If you can see in to my head you know what I mean," I said feeling my body get warmer and brighter. "Good luck, I will check in on you from time to time" she said waving. "Yeah yeah," I mumbled. The first thing I noticed as I woke from my slumber was the pure unadulterated cold in my place of rest. I slowly opened my eyes as to not blind myself with the light and almost immediately noticed the darkness all around save for the brazier behind me. Getting up from the altar where I had slept for some time. Looking around at the darkness I got the feeling that something very bad had happened to the world I call home. Using a base illumination spell a placed it at the top of the room and what I saw shocked me. All around me were the crystal skeletons of crystal ponies bowing to the pedestal that I rested on. Some of them had black crystals growing from their bones. After steeling myself I began to walk towards the entrance. It didn't take long to arrive, only to find it is frozen over with ice. Walking up to it, I tapped it with my claw/hoof combination in an attempt to gauge the thickness of ice. Taking a guess I would say a foot at least taking a couple steps back. I steady myself and fire a low power bolt of lighting from my horn making short work of the ice causing it to explode into thousand tiny shards, that for a brief moment, the light made by the bolt made all the shards shimmer like stars. Then I began walking through the hole I had created to find a blizzard was raging outside. Now for most beings they would have simply waited inside until the arctic flurry was over. However I am not most beings. I simply strode outside, unaffected by the blizzard. I could see perfectly fine, spotting a ridge off in the distance and began making my way over to to get a better vantage point. It wasn't long before I reached my destination, getting a good vantage point and off in the distance I could see the crystal empire. While looking in it's direction I got a slight pulling sensation using my dragonic vision I got a closer look at the city and I could barely see what was giving the pulling sensation. Right in the middle of a plaza was my sword still lodged in the now long dead heart of Valorous the Ice Colossus. Deciding it was high time that it came back into my possession, and thus I took to the skies. Unlike most creatures that walk the the face of equus I don't use wings to fly, but instead use a form of minor gravity control. It took me only ten minutes or so to arrive. The citizens inside the barrier didn't notice because of the blizzard. Realizing that I probably couldn't go in without causing a panic, I flew to a less populated side of the barrier, and making sure that I was not seen, changed into my unicorn form to better blend in and started off towards my sword. As I make my way through the city, I note all the advances and changes that pony society had made throughout the city. I stop in front of a building to look at the wares in the window which were various pastries. I take a second to look myself over in the windows. My piercing silver eyes stare back at me from the reflection. My mane is grayish blue with white zig-zagging streaks my coat was a storm grey, my cutie mark is a black storm cloud with two yellow sword shaped lighting bolts crossed. My horn is a bit more pointed then a normal unicorn’s. I still need to know if the name had changed or not returning to my destination after giving myself another once over in the window after about fifteen minutes (would have been sooner but I got distracted) I arrive at my destination to find a mare in front of the sword surrounded by guards as I began to approach I could hear their conversation. "Ma'am, you are hereby placed under arrest," the guard I assume was the captain based upon his armor being made of a different material. "For what?" the mare snap back. "That is none of your concern. Just come with us," one of the lower ranking guards barks. It was at this point I decide to butt in and help. "Pardon me my good sir, I may not know the law that well, but I know enough to realize your breaking it," I say as I position myself between her and the guards. "Step aside this is none of your concern sir," the captain ordered. "It is when you accuse someone of breaking the law without even telling them which one they’re breaking," I say as I assess the guards. "Sir you have until the count of three to move or we will use force," he warns. "One." I stand firm. They have three earth ponies. "Two." And two pegasi "Three." The captain was the only unicorn. "Attack!" he yells. The guards launch themselves at me. The earth ponies charge and the pegasi take to the sky while the captain hangs to the back. The first earth pony comes close and attempts to tackle me, only for me to dodge to the side and kick him in the ribs hard enough to leave a dent in his armor, effectively winding him. One of the pegasi and an earth pony guards decide to attack at the same time I counter this with lighting spell with enough juice to lock up their muscles. After seeing how I dispatched their allies the last two decide it would be best to run. "Get back here you cowards!" the screaming pony shouts at his fleeing comrades. "If you had half a brain you would join them," I say in a flat tone. This clearly gets a rise out of the guard, as he shoots a blast at me. And me feeling like showing off some more for the pretty mare behind me, jump back and do a flip that would have been almost impossible for a normal pony and only the mare seems to notice this because as I land the guard begins charging up a more powerful spell. I release my current form as he fired, causing a burst of static around me grabbing the sword with my magic I proceed to swing and cut through both the cloud and the blast, as the cloud parted and the guard saw my true form and he faints from what I assume was shock. Looking to the mare. "Are you ok miss....." I say trying to get her to tell me her name. "uuuuuuuuuh...um......oh, my name its Wind Twister," she says beginning to get over her shock. "That’s good but are you okay?" I say taking note that she is a Pegasus. "I’m fine thank you mister," and she returns the question. "You can call me Storm-Front and I’m sorry but I must be going now," noticing the small crowd gathering. And with that I create a flurry of snow within the barrier and use it to take off to the area outside the barrier. I found a cloud and perch myself upon it, to try and think of what to do next. After a couple hours I came up with a few things the first of which is the easiest which is to check up on the weather around the world, then go retrieve my airship and finally go find someone or something that can fill me in one what happened while I was gone. I enter a meditative state and close my eyes and feet which weather formations were around the world and to my shock find almost no storms and feet the twisted artificial clouds floating about. Once I found these I began searching for the source and find what I could best describe as a cloud factory that made me sick to my stomach and I cut the feed right there, waiting a few minutes for the queasiness to pass. I stood up on the cloud I was on and with a stern look on my face turn to the city just starting to calm down from my little show. "What have you done to the world... no to nature itself?" I say, glaring at the ponies. Author's Note hello every on Anicus here if took the time to read this story thank you and don't be afraid to comment below but please if your going to leave criticism make it constructive props to comrade shamrock for editing the mess i call writing here's a picture of the sword: http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_medium/3/33572/668980-sword_01.jpg and here the colossus for those who want to see: http://castleage.wdfiles.com/local--files/monster:ragnarok-the-ice-elemental/water_large.jpg now stay tuned for the next episode of dragonbal- oh wait wrong serie's //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2- Omen in The Air //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2- Omen in The Air The first thing I noticed after I stepped out the portal, was the fact that I was surrounded by grassy plains that seemed to stretch on for as far as the eye could see. After getting a better look of the area, I began looking over my own body. My fur/scales color were an ashen white. The spines running along my back were a light grey color, they started at what I assumed was my head and continued to the tip of my tail; ending in a small spear-shaped barb. My feet or claws now had a flat bottom with three claw-like protrusions, which with a bit of testing I discovered that I had a degree of control over them. Having sat there long enough and with no way to examine my face I decided to try and stand. I stood with surprising ease. I tried to walk and run, I found them coming to me unnaturally easy. With no real reason to explain it, I decided to chalk it up to Faust. And so I decided to set out following the setting sun. After walking for what felt close to three hours because when I started it was at its highest point, now it was about half way between there and the horizon. In that time, I had gone from the plains I started into the beginnings of a forest. The deeper I went, the more I felt as if I was being watched and should turn tail and flee. However I pushed the feelings aside and trekked deeper and I soon came to a small river. I looked around for a way to cross and found some boulders pushing out above the water half way across. I reckoned if I jumped I could make it, so I walked back a bit and lined up my path took a running start and jumped, only for me to realize that as I got closer to the boulder there was a very large rock like crocodile that was now looking straight at me. As I got closer time seemed to slow. It reared its head out of the water. I fought the instinct to scream like a little girl. I wished I could fly and as that thought passed through my head I felt a static feeling emanate from the sides of my skull and I finally noticed that I was now floating in the air. This shocked both me and the rock reptile below. I recovered a couple seconds before it did. I decided to try something. I imagined lightning striking the creature. I got part of it right. The lightning struck the water nearby electrifying the water around it, effectively killing it. I watched it float down stream slightly charred. Now I was with faced my current problem: how to get down. so I just kinda willed it and I began to move and I started slow then began to go faster and faster in a circle I stopped the moment I saw the water below start to get sucked up in the cyclone I began to make I then landed. then took notice how low the sun had gotten. So looking back at my tail blade, I decided to put it to use. After about thirty minutes I had a good pile of wood and tinder. And using my claw appendages to dig a small pit in the ground. Then I built a fire, using the same method I used to create the lighting bolt to make a spark in the pit.I sat there contemplating the past few hours before I decided to go to sleep. I realized that I still had that feeling of being watched and I went to lay down but slept a bit on edge. It had been a few days since I left the frozen north to go seek out my ship. The entire way to Equestria I had this feeling in my gut that something bad was brewing and I might be the one to spill it. Once I arrived at Equestria I began using my connection with the skies to look for my ship. Once I was able to discern its location I began to fly there. Along the way, I began encountering more and more of the vile synthetic clouds. I removed any that I encountered. After what felt like hours, I came up upon what could best be described as a city made from the synthetic clouds. The sight of the ungodly thing made me vomit. I regained my composure once all of it was out. I began to look over the city to see if I could spot or even get a general feeling of where my ship was. Normally my link to it would tell me its exact location, but someone had gone to a lot of trouble to hide its presence from me. This made even getting there harder as I barely felt the pull that tied me to it. After awhile I figured that it was more than likely in the synthetic cloud factory. That’s when I decided to hit two birds with one stone get my ship back and stop or at least slow the creation of these abominations. So a few miles away from the city I formed a natural cloud with my magic and waited for nightfall once it had arrived I changed my fur/scale color with a spell a unicorn friend taught me a long time ago to a dark gray color and began to move towards the factory Once I arrived, I circled around the whole factory looking for guard positions to find that there were next to none. The only guards I could find were at the front entrance, guarding the way in and a few roaming the warehouses in the back. Noting it, I went around the back and found a warehouse that was bigger than the rest. It had cables out the wazoo going into it so I figured that it was probably the best bet for my ship’s location. I flew down to the front entrance and pulled out my sword from its sheath and used it to cut a hole in the front of the warehouse. Once this was done, I resheathed it. Using a cone of light spell, effectively turning my horn into a flashlight, I began looking around the building. I noticed a faint shimmering in the air towards the back and as I began to approach it I realized it was a high-grade illusion spell. Reaching out to the illusion with my magic I began feeling it to try and figure out how best to disarm it I came to the conclusion of brute force. And so I just overrode the spell’s matrix, no doubt setting of a silent alarm so I hurried through and found my goal: my ship the Ragnarok I quickly got around it, unplugging all of the wires and cables. Once I was done freeing the hull of the ship I flew inside and down to the engine, which was specially made, it ran on lightning but the original owner had found it hard to keep charged. So it was passed on to me because I can generate the lightning required for it to run. With a quick electrical discharge I gave the ship enough juice to get out of dodge. I flew up to the helm and grabbed the wheel, then with a pull of a lever the engine roared to life; no doubt alerting the local populace. I floored it, breaking through the door and letting me see the group of guards that were now swarming towards the ship. Not really feeling like having to explain why I just stole a ship from what I assumed was private property I began my escape with the guards in tow. I summoned storm clouds around the ship and pelted them with hail, pressurized winds and lightning. This dealt with most of them but a few managed to get aboard. Among the guards I could tell that there captain was among based on his more boldly colored armor. I locked the wheel in place so the ship would keep its course and nonchalantly walked down the stairs leading to the main deck all the time never taking my eye off them. When I reach the bottom and began approaching them the captain began speaking. “You are hereby placed under arrest for stealing property of the weather factory and it destruction during your escape if you resist we are authorised to use force!” the captain yelled trying to be heard over the wind. “I would like to see you try,” I said, dropping into a battle stance. They immediately rush at me. I simply drew in a deep breath. As they neared I let loose a concussive roar sending most flailing overboard but a few, including the captain, managed to recover in time to stay on board. Two of the remaining guards charged me, while the last helped the captain. I simply spin around on front hooves using my momentum to slam my tail into one causing him to fly at his buddy sending them both over the side. I looked over and it seemed that the captain was knocked unconscious from my roar and his impromptu medic had fled the scene. After clearing out the weather I’d summoned, I made sure that me and the captain were the only things around. I grabbed some extra rope from below deck and used it to tie my new guest to the mast of the ship. After making sure he wouldn't be able to free himself, I then headed down to the engine room to try to figure out what they were doing. Almost immediately, I gave up not knowing a thing about the mechanisms they had placed upon the engine. Idly, I scanned the room. I noticed a newspaper on a desk, deciding to take a little break until my guest awoke I grabbed it with my magic and head to my living quarters. On the way, I stopped stop and chuckled to myself. At the area before the door multiple gadgets and tools lay scattered, most were broken. The only way in is to answer the doors’ question correctly because the room is to be nigh indestructible. I make my approach and the doors asked me the question. “What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?” the voice says “Nothing because nothing is unstoppable nor immovable,” I stated sharply “Answer acceptable, you may pass,” it said opening the door I move inside seeing most of the preservation spell had worked. The only one that seemed to have failed was the one on my stuffed manticore head, which was a shame it was a nice head too but I quickly got over it. I moved to my desk and sat behind it opening the paper giving it a once over to see the more important events that had happened recently. After about 20 minutes of going over the rest of the paper, my draconic hearing picked up what sounded to be hushed cursing and thrashing telling me that my guest had awoken so setting the paper down on my desk and making my way top side as I pass by the engine the meter tells me that the charge ran out I reach the deck and as soon as he hears my he looks to face best he can it looks as if he about to speak so I cut him off. “You will answer all the question I have.” “If you think that I will willingly aid a criminal you ha-” I interrupted him before he could finish. “Who said anything about willingly,” I said giving a toothy grin I charge my magic and cast a memory flow spell, which allows his memories to flow in sort of a river through my mind allowing to pick out the info I required as I find what I need stopping the spell only to find that my guest’s eyes had rolled into his head and he had stopped breathing. “Back in my day it would take a pegasus a few minutes before succumbing to brain failure,” I muttered under my breath as I toss his body overboard. I began thinking of my next move. I may have gotten more info on recent events but I was still pretty clueless on what happened after I went into hibernation. So, I set a course to the place known as Canterlot using the information I gained from the captain. Author's Note this is anicus here for those of you that may be unaware this is a joint story with a wonderful person by the name of articfox and his story shattered sky which was recently redone and sorry for the long wait my internet went out and i was busy with work stuff here what the Ragnarok looks like and it's size as well http://img11.deviantart.net/f75a/i/2013/077/0/e/fantasy_airship_by_yuchenghong-d5yj5xy.jpg