G’day, everyone out there! I’m Brad, and I chase storms for a living. It’s a job that’s often overlooked just because of its dangers, but eh, I do what I like. Well rather, I did. Way back in time, about… Three hours ago, maybe, I bit off a bit more than I could chew. Instead of chasing the usual storms, I was set up to go right into a category 2 hurricane. I was stoked for the day, and began setting everything up to take on a category 2. While buying supplies, I found a shop off to the side selling interesting ‘good luck’ items. I don’t believe in that mumbo-jumbo, but the shopkeeper looked so lonely that I decided to buy something and chat a bit. It was a little glass orb with an optical illusion suspending a little storm right in the center, and the man looked rather pleased when I payed him. Of course, that smile was probably the last good part of my day from then onward…
At about four in the afternoon, everything was completely set. I had my cameras set up and reinforced, and my specially modified van ready to tackle the storm. I brought along that little trinket as well, just out of humor. After a last-minute check over everything, I started driving across the coast towards the storm. After about half an hour of driving, I reached the spot where the storm was supposed to touch down on land, and my heart skipped a beat.
“This was SO misclassified!” I screamed out, before realizing I was alone. The hurricane approaching shore wasn’t a category 2, it was a category 5, the most lethal hurricane to be listed! I tried in a panic to drive away, to survive having driven so close, but no… My car was hit by an uprooted tree, and thrown into the main body of the storm from the impact. I clutched at the trinket, silently cursing the ‘luck’ it brought, and blacked out from the change in pressure.
When I regained my senses, the first thing I heard was the surging of wind, but strangely muted. Did I somehow survive? I opened my eyes, and noticed with a start that my vision was distorted oddly, like I was looking through eyes that were too big. With that realization in hand, I looked around at the terrain, and saw nothing to indicate anything having lived near where I had touched down. Suddenly frightened, I tried to roll onto my feet, only to somehow misjudge the distance and… Hang on, something isn’t right; How did I crush nearly half an acre of forest with one move?
A jolt hit me as I noticed that I was standing at a rather odd angle for a human. Slowly, dreading what I would see, I looked down. The last bits of unconsciousness were cast out from my legs being gone. Turning with a mad panic, my mind surging, I saw… Giant wings, made of what seemed to be condensed air or cloud… At that point, I snapped, and my emotions came out in one giant yell of panic.
Um… That tree was supposed to violently compress, right? If not…
I think I did that…, I thought to myself, beginning to lightly grasp some bit of sense in this world. Glancing back, I wondered how I would even get off the ground. A bit of a feeling surfaced, and I acted on it, willing my wings to flap once. I was quickly rocketed into the air, catching myself in midair by some unknown instinct and just hovering.
Okay… What do I know, my racing mind began to think. I must be nearly weightless, and still rather strong… Judging from the body… Oh man, the sweet irony.
I nearly laughed out loud at my realization: My new form appeared to be a condensed category 5 hurricane, in the form of some strange dragon-like thing. Trying something, I forced the air in my body to compress some more, causing me to shrink to about twice the size of a bear. I landed in the forest again, and chuckled lightly at my little trick, sounding somewhat like the rumble of thunder. My confidence restored, I floated slightly above the ground and entered the forest, where my adventure would truly begin.
Ugh, this is so boring... I mentally complained to myself as I trekked onward through the forest. Well, maybe ‘trekked’ isn’t an accurate term, since I mostly just floated above every obstacle I encountered. If I’m going to be honest with you, it was just a leisurely float, but this is getting off-topic. Anyways, back to what’s going on!
I kept going, deeper into the forest… Or was I getting farther out? I had no clue, something just seemed to be going right with my navigational sense for once. In any case, there was absolutely nothing around except trees, trees, and- you guessed it- more freakin’ trees! After the first few hours, I had begun blasting trees left, right, and center with that weird implosion-breath just to clear up the monotony of the endless copy/paste of nature.
Well, at least this can’t get any worse… I thought, before quickly realizing I had just thought the forbidden words that had ended many great explorers. I began flying faster through the dense woods, cursing myself mentally in as many languages as I could think of at the time. Looking ahead, I noticed things seemed to be getting a little brighter, like I was finally almost out of the suffocating maze of trees. Zooming forward, and tearing a few trees and stones in half on accident, I burst out of the woods, filled with joy at finally seeing the sky again, and promptly expanded in size slightly, as keeping myself in a compact form during my journey had become uncomfortable.
Shaking off my distracted thoughts, I looked around for the light I had spotted, and saw a town nearby. It looked rather odd, like whoever lived there had devolved a century or two and forgotten how to make cement. I drifted in for a closer look, apprehensive due to the odd feel in the air, like something was trying to control my body.
When I approached the town, I quickly realized that something wasn’t quite right. The door handles looked to be made for an amputee, and the homes all had thatch roofing. Only a few buildings, including the giant one in the center, had a true roof at all, and there was even one incredibly strange home that seemed built into a tree.
What bunch of wack-jobs would live in a place like this? I pondered. Unfortunately, Murphy’s Law had not gone away from my thoughts in the forest, and decided that now was the time to strike. I heard a door slowly creak open from behind me, and I watched carefully, tense from the anticipation of meeting the inhabitants of this new- … It’s a horse. World, what is with your awful sense of humor? The orange horse promptly froze up in the doorway, staring at me, before walking slowly around me and walking backward towards a farm on the outskirts. Shortly afterwards, I heard another door opening, from the library behind me. Hearing a gasp, I turn slowly, thinking a human was FINALLY- Oh come on, another horse! This one was pink, and… It’s a unicorn.
Well, screw logic today I guess, I thought yet again. The pink unicorn started to scream, in what sounded almost like a human voice, and more doors started opening. I could practically feel the hundreds of eyes staring at me, and my anger peaked. I opened my mouth, intent on yelling about how they should stop staring, and about half of the houses in front of me were gone, except the library. There was an awkward, stunned silence as the horses seemed to process this, then they all started screaming even louder! Roaring out as well, I felt myself starting to contract involuntarily, until I was at the reduced size I had used during my forest trek. Seeing as the ones in my immediate vicinity were unconscious from the shock, I fled into the tree-house-thing in front of me, and quickly closed and locked the door behind me.
Dear lord, what have I gotten myself into… I solemnly thought to myself, not wanting to destroy everything again. As I slumped down slightly, sad about how I had ruined the town, I snapped out of it when I had an idea, and quickly looked around for some paper. I found it, and took a quill- seriously, these horses are primitive- and tried to write. Despite my stormy body, I found it somewhat easy, if a little awkward, and wrote out a quick note. Putting it on the desk, I went out through a window that had shattered from my earlier display, and went off to the forest once more.
Sparkler was incredibly mad about her awful luck. When she woke up, she was instantly given a notice saying she would be evicted from her library- her home- if visitors didn’t start coming more often. Immediately after breakfast, the bad luck streak continued when she walked out the door and was instantly faced with what seemed to be a living weather formation. At first, she thought it was some clever prank by the resident weather ponies, but then it started turning. She saw its ‘eyes’, little pockets of condensed electricity and magic, staring at her, and she snapped. Sparkler started screaming, which prompted ponies to come out of their homes. After one massive burst of what the poor librarian could only guess was Pegasus magic, she was regaining consciousness with half of the rather large town completely destroyed. Sighing sadly, the pink mare turned back to her library and walked over to her financial notes, when she noticed a paper. Checking it, the pink mare gasped lightly when she saw some rather sloppy writing on it forming six words: I’m sorry for what I did.
Author's Note
Hello everybody who's made it this far! This is Dragon here, and I hope that you're enjoying the story so far. Lots of effort has gone into this first chapter, and there's plenty more where this came from. I'd like to thank all of those who have supported me in the Displaced group and inspired me to write this.
Also, our stormy protagonist looks something like this, except less purple and more of a bluish-green.
