Clouds littered the skies above Equestria in long, sweeping currents that stretched for miles. The wind had been strong the past few days, giving rise to a drizzly pattern of weather that had spawned deep out at sea. The mountains and hills of the land did their best to quell the worst of the storms, but not even the mightiest peaks could fully deflect the world in the skies.

High above the sweeping hills and plains of the verdant land, a single solitary speck of life could be seen, hurtling itself across the expanse as fast as its wings would carry her. The wind would buffet, push and shove against her, but the determined mare would continue to steam right through, intent on returning to whence she had come.

Derpy readjusted her goggles. They’d been trying to slip down her muzzle ever since the rain had begun, she having abandoned dampness long ago and becoming thoroughly soaked. Her uniform, already a little worn from its many years in service of its owner, was now completely ragged, its appearance pitiful as it became saturated in the downpour. More worrisome to the mailmare was her mailbag, which had been threatening to loose itself from her grasp ever since takeoff several hours ago. She had departed from Ponyville with an overfilled sack that had stressed the waistbuckle. Now she was too far out in the wilds to be able to pause for repairs and maintenance. Besides, she was on a timeline.

Derpy scowled as the rain spattered her face, seeping into her coat and freezing her to the bone. It was a late summer day, the time of the year when the sun would be delivering its harshest rays to scorch the earth. Yet here she flew, chilled by the sea-born weather. It was exhausting to go through.

She had left Ponyville early that morning, once again the first of her coworkers to be on shift. Her boss, Stamp, had given her the task of making the flight out to the eastern city of Baltimare, one of the largest port cities of the kingdom, to deliver a large amount of overdue packages and letters to the post office there. Since she’d been the first to arrive, Derpy had naturally volunteered to take the job.

“Are… uh, are you sure, Derpy?” Stamp had asked, eyeing the blonde pegasus warily. “It’s a long way, and I heard we might get some weather later in the day.”

Derpy wasn’t one to be stopped. “Uh-uh. I can handle it.”

Stamp pulled a face but nodded, reaching down and beginning to sort the necessary packages. “It’s a heavy load, too,” he said, tossing a substantial pile of letters onto the desk. “Weather report for today says the best thermals are gonna be found higher up than normal, so try getting some altitude and you won’t have to exert so much.”

“Alright.” Derpy saddled herself with her mailsack, brushing the mail into its pockets with her wings, gently sorting them in until everything was properly stored and tied down. Stamp hadn’t been exaggerating, the bag was heavy. Nevertheless, she was determined.

“Alright, be back before sunset, OK? The worst of the weather today comes in around then, so try to get here before it does,” Stamp advised her.

“OK.”

“And- hey, Derpy, one more thing…” Stamp said. “Have you, uh… how’ve you been doing lately? You been alright?”

Derpy simply stared at her boss, unsure of how to answer that. Finally, she decided upon a small smile and by saying, “I’m fine,” before heading out the doors and flying off.

Now, hours later, Derpy could still feel where the mail had dug into her body, sagging against her sides and weighing her down. It had been an exhausting trip- perhaps too much for her to have taken on. She had done her best to get a bite to eat in Baltimare, but the time schedule she had been given dictated a speedy return. Even if she wanted to deny it, the truth was quite clear: she had been slowed by the extra weight. Returning home by sunset now seemed like a far more difficult task than it had been that morning.

Smack! Derpy felt something hard strike across the bridge of her nose and she gave a small gasp of pain. That had stung! She came to a halt and rubbed her nose, at least thankful that it hadn’t struck her goggles-

Smack! Smack! Another, and another came rattling towards her, and Derpy realized she was being struck by hail. The weather had turned against her earlier than she had expected, now proving a legitimate danger against her well-being. To go further ahead would only increase the velocity by which she was being struck, the ice freely tearing against her skin. Her only solution was to now fly over it, high above into areas where the oxygen levels would be low.

Derpy felt a twinge of nerves as she ascended, flying straight up into the thick clouds. She wasn’t a Cloudsdale descendant like Rainbow Dash or some of her other friends. She was Ponyville born and bred, acclimatized to the weather below the ceiling. She was going to be putting her body through unfamiliar atmosphere.

Her breathing became more hurried, rapid and shallow as she broke through the ceiling, coming to a halt about a hundred feet above the storm’s surface. Here the air was clean, perfect and unhindered by the growing chaos below. She could see across the sheet of iron grey that chugged determinedly along towards the East Coast, a thick wooly sheet of water and wind that showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. Derpy, unaccustomed to being so high above the earth, could only gape in awe at the purity of her surroundings. Nothing but clouds and uninhibited sky as far as the eye could see.

But so dark! The sun was nowhere to be seen in this ocean of grey and dark blue, growing ever darker. The stars were already beginning to shine on the edge of the eastern horizon, no longer shielded by the sun’s rays. Derpy felt a sudden thrill of fear as she remembered her boss’ words: back before sunset. Storms were coming. She was already late. Which meant…

The sound of thunder drummed through the early night sky just as the mailmare began to turn about, now faced with a storm cell massive enough to blot out the entire sky, its anvil peak jutting thousands of feet into the skies above her. The iron grey clouds beneath her hooves were nothing compared to this darkened behemoth, it churning out beasts the color of smoke and toxic fumes, flashes of lightning so numerous it was more akin to a fireworks show than anything natural. Derpy was completely, utterly alone against this nightmarish being, a lone pegasus facing off against the worst of nature’s concoctions.

Derpy scanned the horizon as far as she could see, letting the lightning illuminate any possible path she could take. If there was a chance she could avoid the worst of it, a path through the darkened miasma, then she would take it without question. The storm that lay before her was nothing to be trifled with. If she could only find a path, a way through, some break in the line… it soon became all too apparent there was none. Too high to fly over- and to reverse course would be only to delay the inevitable. Her wings had endured a long journey already today, made all the more difficult by a heavy delivery. If she was to outmuscle this storm, she could only see one choice ahead of her: she would have to fly straight through it.

Derpy adjusted her goggles and tightened the straps as best as she could manage, her hooves fumbling across the soaked leather made slick by rain. If she were to lose her goggles out in this mess, she would be at serious risk. Unwillingly, fearfully, she began to fly straight towards the storm, doing her very best to ignore the streaks of lightning and belches of thunder, the fires and bellows of this titanic goliath. Closer and closer she came, the wind beginning to pick up and prick at her flesh. Her heart pounded. Her mind raced for some alternative she could take- there was none. Just a few short yards away. Soon, she would be in. Three, two, one-

It was as if she had suddenly crossed over into a battlefield, the buffeting winds slicing against her hide and pushing her this way and that. Derpy brought her wings in close and thrust forward, trying her best to push through and stay on course. That was the biggest danger of this storm, of flying straight through a massive wall of clouds- lose your way and you would have to start all over again, right in the very midst of the fury.

Boom! Lightning scorched the air only yards ahead of her, Derpy’s coat buzzing with the electricity that vibrated through the air. Her every surrounding was charged, a ticking timebomb that could explode at any moment and catch her right in its grasp. She felt her mail uniform begin to tear, the postpony’s hat flying off her head and disappearing into the darkness. She didn’t want to lose it, but she had no choice in this chaos- no turning back.

Another gust of wind struck Derpy straight across her chest, slugging her with the force of a pumped kick. It was all she could do to not reel from the blast, struggling to hold herself together and push right on through. Adjusting her wings as best she could, the mailmare charged on ahead and sought for an opening. Updrafts were all around her, contorting and twisting vortexes that sought to pull her astray and drag her into the boneyard of the clouds from which she would not return-

She felt it stir in the air, her sodden coat unable to resist as the charge began its ascendance. It was going to strike any moment, and if she didn’t get out of the way now-!

Derpy folded her wings against her body and went into freefall, her weight naturally sending her streaking down to the ground-

Crack! A massive bolt of lightning shot across the storm, its bright yellow fingers tearing apart into hundreds of tiny crooked lines that shattered the sky and blinded all who bore witness- an audience of only one small, very frightened mailmare. Derpy’s heart was pounding as her terror began to border panic- this storm was unnaturally savage, far too cruel to have been made or aided by the weatherponies of Equestria. This beast was something far too powerful to have been made with the blessings of ponies. She had only been flying through it for a few minutes and already she was exhausted! If she didn’t get out of here soon, she might not ever get out-

Derpy felt a tugging sensation around her waist and she lurched backwards, as if pulled by some unseen force. Her knapsack! The loose straps were coming undone, allowing the empty sacks to filter open and act as a chute, catching the air and dragging her backwards. The blonde pegasus stopped where she flew and wrestled with the straps as much as she could, desperately trying to work herself free before the violent currents of air dragged her off into some unknown void of the atmosphere.

One buckle free. The knapsack, her favorite tool of the trade and her companion for the past three years, flew loosely in the wind, hindered by only a single strap. The force of the storm pulled on her wings and threatened to tear away every single feather, if only the pegasus would take a little while longer to free herself. Just a little more, a little more-

It was far too late for her to do anything by the time she had noticed. Her coat stung before the blast even erupted, trying to warn her of the danger. But nothing could save her from the explosion of light and energy as the next bolt struck only a few feet away from Derpy’s nose, shattering the sky and sending the pegasus careening in shock to be tossed about by wherever the wind would take her-

Derpy could only fall, her body stunned into motionlessness by the concussive force of the blast. She could see nothing but shadows, her already poor vision stunted by the brightness of the bolt and leaving her massively disoriented. If her wings had not been pressed up against her side by sheer fright, she would have been thrown into the violent traps of the storm and never seen again. Thankfully, she recovered before she could become fully ensnared, and she raced out of the pockets of wild vortices and into something a little more bearable.

Derpy looked about at her surroundings, seeing nothing but the same clouds in every direction. She had become lost in the midst of a supreme storm, her knapsack violently torn from her side and her goggles beginning to crack under the strain of the storm. She needed to get out before she could no longer keep herself airborne. Faced with no other choice, Derpy cupped her wings in and took a nosedive descent into the miasma of the storm, piercing the skies for lower visibility where she could regain her composure.

The power of the storm intensified as she fell, throwing her aside as if she was a child’s plaything, and it was all Derpy could do to just hold on. She began to seriously debate simply making a complete descent and finding someplace on the surface to make shelter, if she could make it that far. This storm was unlike anything she had ever seen before and her wings were exhausted from the torrential punishment-

Something rushed past her face and Derpy came screeching to a halt, missing the unidentified object by only a few inches-

A massive branch flew past her starboard wing, close enough to cut through a few of her feathers and rocking the winded pegasus. Then a massive boulder, followed by dozens upon dozens of trees and rocks and objects of all kinds, leaving the terrified mailmare in a state of panic. This was no ordinary storm. It was a supercell, and below her –though she could not see it in the darkness- was a powerful, violent tornado.

Derpy gave no thought to strategy or direction- her only instinct was to flee the very real, very lethal threat that was just below her. Debris of all kinds now soared through the air and threatened to strike at any moment, forcing the pegasus to bob and wave across the sky terrain with every ounce of energy she could muster, forced upon her by pure adrenaline and the hopes of somehow surviving this unbelievable nightmare. Everything around her was now a lethal threat, from the air to the debris and all that she couldn’t even see- the world was against her once again, fueled by the unnatural savagery of this violent, powerful storm that beat against her and threatened to tear her apart.

No way to escape below, no hope in the skies above, and now Derpy was lost in this blinding maelstrom, flying about madly with no instinct but to survive a little while longer, hoping beyond hope that somehow it would dissipate and end before she collapsed from exhaustion. Her goggles were nearly destroyed, soaked in rain and fogged beyond the hopes of visual comprehension. She was flying blind, and it was only a matter of time before disaster struck and took her with it-

She never knew what hit her. Tearing across her cheek and slicing her goggle strap cleanly in one single stroke, dealing such a punishing blow to the head that it was all Derpy could do to stay conscious for even a few seconds. Her wings fully spread, the storm took hold of her at last and began to pluck her apart, throwing her about in the field of debris and offering no hope of escape. As her mind began to leave her, the smallest niggle of fear remained as Derpy understood, some small portion of her sanity, this was likely to be where she would find her end. They would never find her body. No one would ever even know…

She lost consciousness as she descended into the vortex.

Author's Note

Just an idea that spawned from looking at the art that is the cover for this story. Hopefully it won't be as absurdly long as my last project, and I hope it's something you can enjoy.

Comments and corrections below!