Storm Force Assemble! [Storm Medley, Thunderlane, Lightning Dust, closed]

[Apolline Allura]

Lightning Dust never usually flew low. It was tacky and plain lame when your maneuvering was ruined whenever somepony was careless enough not to hear or see the shadow across the ground heading in their direction. Not to mention, she couldn't dive at all. Lightning Dust loved dives. While having a pegas-eye view of things from where she was, it couldn't be exactly said that she was flying low, but rather, low for her. There was a certain comfort zone Dust had found in higher altitudes because of all she was allowed to do within them.

But cruising over the many towers and battlements of Trottingham was low to her. Simply because she could see everypony--and they could see her right back. Public attention wasn't really her thing...currently...sorta.

Not that she cared at all because who cares right? Nopony needed to give two flying feathers about what she did or didn't succeed in. Even if part of it was managing to piss of Spitfire and get kicked out of the academy. Or all of it really. And now this suspension put her on edge. It didn't sit well with Lightning Dust, the way her disgrace was being dangled over dream like a guillotine ready to drop.

'Remedial courses.' Or some other stupidness. Dust was called up to meet somepony somewhere where they were to teach her how to get her act together, among other things.

The turquoise pegasus continued to keep an eye out for the teacher, Storm Medley. A darker pelted pegasus mare with a cumulus cloud cutie mark. Simple as pie.

And then the air began to shift, and Lightning Dust could smell the precipitation coming on.

"...motherfeathers." she mumbled, speeding up and around the large clock tower, almost clipping a wing.

''Get her name, but no friggin' directions. How much more dumb could this possibly get.''

[GhostGirl]

Storm Medley barked orders at Trottingham's weather team. They were behind schedule because a few slackers had shown up late. Now she was picking up the slack just so the city would have it's thunderstorm as close to the scheduled time as possible, nevermind that she was late for an appointment with a certain suspended Wonderbolts candidate.

"Rein those clouds in, Sunburst!" she snapped, her voice hoarse with urgency, watching as the ruddy stallion snapped to attention and followed commands. If he kept it up, he could be the next team leader. She'd suggest him as a possible replacement for Cloud Dancer upon the mare's retirement, which, if Stormy recalled correctly, was coming up any month now. Then her eye was caught by an orange mare who couldn't keep up. "Fall back, Thunder Roll! Head topside! I'm sure Cloudy can use you!"

"Wind Rider, Rain Maker, to me! We're going to give one final push to get this bad boy over Trottingham, and then we can all fall back for a while!" The pegasi took position at either side of Storm Medley and away they went, guiding the storm into position. When it was place, Stormy barked one final order. "Head topside, boys and girls! I'll find you after you break the storm and tell you how you did!" She dropped out of sight as they flew off, and soon perched upon the clock tower, observing the storm. Late for my appointment... What am I supposed to do about that?

Jumping up again, she took off to at least make her observations, and promptly bowled into Lightning Dust.

[Apolline Allura]

Scanning for any remote sign of her remedial instructor, Lightning Dust was suddenly beset with a hoof's worth of scrambling pegasi trying frantically, sloppily, get to their jobs. The turquoise mare scoffed. '[colour=#40e0d0]These chuckle-heads should have been on this five minutes ago.'[/colour]

In her mental chiding of the other ponies taking to the sky, she barely registered the blur of opal and green slamming into her from under. Lightning Dust and the mass of feathers and hooves that had collided with her fell, tumbling through the air as the mare cursed and shouted, trying to disentangle herself from it. Dust managed to shift the ball of pony to one of the high rooftops near the clock tower and the two came to a hard landing, making a trail through a number of shingles that went flying off the roof and down below.

[colour=#40e0d0]"You...unh...got five seconds to get your cutie mark 'n flank outta my face before I bail. And another five to tell me what the hay was the big idea!"[/colour] grunted Lightning Dust.

[GhostGirl]

Stormy spluttered and coughed and choked on air as she and Lightning Dust hit the roof and tumbled away. Now just how had she managed to run into somepony? She was usually so attentive. Then again, there usually weren't ponies that weren't working on the storm hanging around when a storm was being built up. She fixed her gaze on the offending pegasus and found it to be none other than the mare she'd been late to meet up with.

"Lightning Dust! Well, it's good that I ran into you, however literally that term may be taken. I fell behind for our appointment because a few rotten pegasi who need to get their acts together decided to show up late for their jobs. Put the whole storm behind schedule!" She pulled herself up and brushed herself off with her tail and wings, then extended a hoof to Lightning Dust. "Now, if I remember correctly, Spitfire's put me in charge of your training, to get your status with the Wonderbolts into a more favorable position, no?"

It then occurred to her that perhaps she should point out precisely who she was. She may have made it clear in her mannerisms, but you can never tell with some ponies, if they can put 2+2 together quickly enough, especially in the middle of the storm that was whipping around them at that precise moment. "I'm Storm Medley, by the way."

[Apolline Allura]

"Lightning Dust! Well, it's good that I ran into you, however literally that term may be taken. I fell behind for our appointment because a few rotten pegasi who need to get their acts together decided to show up late for their jobs. Put the whole storm behind schedule!"

The hoof extended to her was looked down upon given a strange look by Dust herself.

[colour=#282828]"Now, if I remember correctly, Spitfire's put me in charge of your training, to get your status with the Wonderbolts into a more favorable position, no?[/colour]

That particular sequence of words caused the turquoise mare to instantly become a bit more agreeable, and so she shook the pony's hoof gingerly. Storm Medley seemed more the type to give orders, presently anyway. Lightning Dust respected action moreso than the simple notion of authority itself, but maybe she'd learn a little something about the other pegasus that'd get her to stick around...

[colour=#40e0d0]"Yeah, that's me. I'm guessin' if I pull off a few exercises, you can put in a good word for me and we can call it a day right?"[/colour]

...other than the obvious.

[GhostGirl]

Storm snorted bemusedly. "Sure, if your idea of a few exercies and calling it a day is months, maybe even years of hard work to get your skills up to par and your attitude settled in." Her words, though, were covered up by a crack of lightning and a deep boom of thunder, drawing her eyes skyward once more.

The clouds had darkened to near pitch black and the rain pelting the city was very nearly sideways. The storm was much stronger than had been scheduled for the day. Stormy would even go so far as to say it was outside of safety parameters. All in all, it was not a good day for Trottingham.

"Oh, Sweet Celestia, no. No, they're losing control already? I'm going to have to do so much work with these sorry excuses for weather pegasi. They have five minutes to get it back under control before I step in... Sorry about this, Dust, our appointment may be postponed a little bit longer." Her words were stern, her expression hard set, as she glanced back at the other pegasus.

[Apolline Allura]

Lightning Dust scoffed, "Months? Years? You rookies always did tell good jokes."

The arcs of electricity shooting across the sky gave her pause when accompanied by the rolling thunder. She stared up a bit longer before snorting right back. Storm Medley's recruits were working on something like...well...recruits. How or why she managed to wrangle this ragtag piece of crud team together was beyond the turquoise pegasus. And then for Stormy to give her whatever guff about attitude? Psh. Who'd this pony think she was?

Blacker still the sky became, and Stormy lamented the uselessness of the ponies she had amassed to take on the evil storm cloud.

"Five minutes? Tell 'ya what, Stormy," said Lightning Dust, leaning in next to the other mare, "I'll go handle this, and you tell 'em I'm reformed or something in your report."

She trotted to a beam over looking the city below and spread her wings. "This'll take about fifty seconds. Twenty five if you don't count touchdowns."

Lightning Dust leapt, and flapped once, twice and again before taking her wings buzzing into overdrive to ascend. She smirked dangerously as she approached the cloud and shot off into it, a trail of blazing zig-zag gold behind her. The toughest problem, would be avoiding the electrical currents, which had reached larger sizes than she had been prepared for. Precison strikes in key areas were optimal for success, and if she wanted to win, she had to stay directly under the clouds. As long as she could prevent her own aether from going haywire trying to deflect the currents, everypony would be fine and she could start cutting down the middle to get rid of the stormm.

[GhostGirl]

Storm made a face at being called a rookie. Dust really hadn't done her research if she thought Storm was rookie. Really, to belittle the QA mare so was to ignore her years of team leading and training experience. Lightning Dust didn't know who she was dealing with. At her next thought, Stormy snerked. If Dust wanted to be back in Spitfire's good graces, she'd have to jump through hoops -- FLAMING hoops... in fact, non-stationary flaming hoops. It might even be necessary to break the disgraced candidate before building her back up into a confident flyer. It wouldn't be fun.

And then Dust was off being over-confident about fixing the storm Trottingham's undertrained weather team had let get out of control.

"YOU GET BACK HERE, HOTSHOT," she called, her voice lost in the wind. She bristled and took off after Lightning Dust, drawing up beside her. "Get your hooves back on the ground, Dust," she barked, hoarse from straining against the wind, thunder, and lightning to make herself heard. "You WILL give this team a chance to fix their own mistakes before you try to take over, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

To say Storm Medley was displeased was the understatement of the century.

[Apolline Allura]

"Hm."

Lightning Dust wore a contemplative expression as she dodged another bolt of electricity. Could somepony who was way back on a roof way behind her be heard from this far away? Probably something about being careful. But what did being careful matter if the job got finished?

'I'll have this out the way in no time...' she thought to herself confidently. 'Just gotta disperse it from the center where it's the worst at.'

And so she streaked into the eye of the storm, preparing to cut the storm off by flying in the opposite direction in the eye. She could feel the aether pumping through her plummage as she sped up and higher into the atmosphere. This was a dangerous stunt, no doubt, and the lightning strikes were becoming much more frequent now.

Left. Right. Left-LEFT! Lightning Dust's path became increasingly perilous to the point of not being sure if she could reach the eye without getting fried. The storm was at it's most furious in here, the dead center. Pushing her wings harder and feeling considerable strain, the pegasus struggled against the current with gusto.

''Is that all you got?" she yelled above. ''I've seen sunny days give me more trouble than you!"

Now pushing against the center, it became apparent to her that this entire plan was very much a bad idea.

Lightining Dust's wings were surging with magical energies, which, if she could compare it rightly, were like the negative charges in a battery. In the center of these electrical fields, she was just begging to get zapped. The strikes came faster, and harder to predict. Visibility was low.

"No...no, no no no nonononono--!"

A blast of lightning struck the lone pony, heat and ripples of pain running her body ragged. She screamed out in pain, falling back to the earth, and through her pain, she could hear the thunder rumble even LOUDER. Lightning Dust spiraled downward, only able to direct her body, and with minimal control at that. Most, if not all of her nerves were on fire. Managing to turn, she ended up in the worst place possible after coming to a crash landing.

After kicking up another row of shingles, the slightly burnt, definitely injured and most definitely in trouble pony looked up from Storm Medley's hooves and could only offer a pained groan for her trouble. Above, the two of them, the weather ponies comprising Stormy's rookies were being assaulted with stronger lightning attacks from the storm. Amazingly, and to Dust's chagrin, it had gotten worse.

[Dio]

Trottingham. A wretched hive of scum and villainy. Home of Trottingham United, that superstitious and cowardly lot; bitter rivals of The Club and mortal enemies of the heroic hoofball hooligans who called Hoofington home. The match was set, the lines were drawn, and drinks were pouring. Thunderlane was happily sipping cider and munching on hay fries at the bar while chatting it up with his friends over how AWESOME the game was going to be.

Or at least that’s what he would have been doing had some sodden, disheveled pegasus not crashed into the tavern screaming something about a SUPER STORM. Being that he was one of only a few weather ponies with severe weather experience, Thunderlane was naturally top choice. Thunderlane wasn’t normally one to grumble, but of all the worst things, this was the worst.

The north end of town square they’d said. Look for Storm Medley, a turqoise pegasus mare with curly hair and a storm cloud cutie mark. It was much too dangerous to fly, so Thunderlane had to do with trotting along the streets in the general direction of the square. Spying a silhouette on a rooftop, Thunderlane gingerly spread his wings, and took off, alighting on shingles already loosened by wind and rain.

[colour=#008080]“Hey, are you Storm Medley? The runner told me to meet a weather mare named... YOU?”[/colour]

The blonde mane. The blue coat. The stupid grin. Even the frazzled feathers. Thunderlane could recognize the progenitor of that electrified blur anywhere. Was this storm her fault, too? Just like the tornado back at academy?

[colour=#008080]“What the hay is going on here?”[/colour]

[GhostGirl]

Storm Medley stared up at the storm above her, eyes wide, before bristling and glaring down at Lightning Dust. "NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE, YOU FOAL." If she was displeased before, she was livid now. A deep breath and she relaxed once more. "You are brash and hot headed, Rookie. Learn to think before you act and you might have a chance with the Wonderbolts," she hissed.

A second later, her attention was drawn to an arriving stallion. He looked vaguely familiar. She seemed to recognize him from among the most recent Wonderbolts cadets, too. Promising fellow, and certainly in better standing than Lightning Dust.

"Runner? So the team had the sense to send for help! Thank Sweet Celestia they learned that much." A sigh of relief, and then she was in form again. "Okay, Mohawk." Her voice was drifting back into the bark of orders as she slapped a nickname onto the new arrival. "All you need to know is that there's a storm VERY OBVIOUSLY out of control. If you think you can help, the three of us have to get in there and fix this." It wasn't any of his business if Dusty'd mussed things up and made them worse, and even though she had, it didn't matter. What mattered was that it was fixed before it caused serious damage to the city.

Just before leaping into the air towards the storm, she shot another glare at Lightning Dust. "That means you, too, Rook." With a cursory glance across the length of the storm, she built a plan and spread her wings, darting to the south as she shouted orders back at the other two pegasi.

"Right! Rook, you tackle that shelf cloud! Start breaking up the meat of the storm! Mohawk, with me! There's a wall cloud forming to the south, and if it keeps developing we'll have a tornado on our hooves! Move out!"

[Apolline Allura]

"Motherfeather."

The word was cursed into the shingles before the pegasus pulled herself together and got back up. Thunder and lightning roared in her ears and she cringed. The storm had turned into something much uglier, much meaner than what she had encountered previously. Lightning Dust was ready to bail on this disaster altogether, but Storm Medley had called her back. It was a serious problem that they would need every pegasus for, but darn it if Dust wanted to continue to associate herself with this situation.

The mare grit her teeth and took off, sure that the big guy nearest her followed suit.

And...come to think of it, he looked kind of familiar.

Lightning Dust took one glance and immediately identified him by name. Thunderlane.

'I better be made an official Wonderbolt for this ****.' growled the speedster in her head, putting on another burst of speed to follow Storm Medley into the black terror above.

[Dio]

[colour=#40e0d0]"Motherfeather."[/colour]

That was her. Blonde chick with the attitude and a mouth to match. Thunderlane’s eyes narrowed at the memory of the serial fiasco that was his last stay at the Wonderbolt Academy. Now Thunderlane wasn’t ordinarily one to hold grudges, but the casualties from Lightning Dust included more than just his pride. Obstacle courses. Cafeteria brawls. Faceplanting off the dizzitron. Getting tornadoed into a cliffside. Yup. That was her. Trouble with a capital L-D.

“Mohawk, with me! There's a wall cloud forming to the south, and if it keeps developing we'll have a tornado on our hooves! Move out!"

Thunderlane snorted as he flared his wings in response to the order. Lightning Dust or not, no tornado was taking him out that day. [colour=#008080]“Right with you, boss.”[/colour]

[colour=#40e0d0]“I better be made an official Wonderbolt for this...”[/colour]

[colour=#008080]“Won’t matter if you’re dead.”[/colour] Came the snapped reply.

[GhostGirl]

Stormy made a mental note to scold the new arrival for being uncivil in the middle of a crisis, though she figured it could wait until they were all out of danger. She darted through the storm, dodging lightning and guarding her ears against the crack of thunder that sounded along with it, heading straight for the meanest wall cloud she'd seen in years. Honestly, she needed a few more helping hooves than just the Wonderbolts cadet and suspended cadet she'd picked up. Still, Mohawk and Rook had potential. They'd do.

"Mohawk, start on the east end of it! I'll head to the west and we'll meet in the middle! When we're done with this, we'll go help Rook with the shelf cloud!" And then off she went, expecting her orders to be carried out to a t, and in no time she was pummeling the monstrous weather into submission, hoping that Thunderlane and Lightning Dust were half as good as she thought they probably maybe were.

[Apolline Allura]

Lightning's retort was ready and waiting, but she was given pause by another crack and kaboom of the fearsome weather beast. In a very very small part, this was her doing. The storm fed from her own charge and increased in size, strength and density. There was an even smaller part she had been willing to play until now. The addition of Thunderlane had certainly only done more to guilt the hotshot, and so she blasted up into the direction of the aforementioned shelf cloud.

Coming at the thick black fluff as fast as she could, she struck it, and it yielded, though not easily to her hooves. She zigzagged across it, cutting it down, piece by piece. None of her work would mean a thing if the other pegasi couldn't contain it though. This was a case where they would want to burn the candle at both ends, and if this didn't work...

The thought occurred to Lightning that she had never learned to trust other ponies, really. Thunderbrains and Stormy would have to do though.This wasn't a one-pony job, and as much as she would have loved to count on a magical rainbow streaking through the sky to help them, it wasn't coming any time soon.

[colour=#40e0d0]"This is the last freebie they get outta me--WHOA!"[/colour] Lightning shouted in a frantic tumble away from a blast of actual lightning in the midst of her aerial slicing.

[Dio]

Storm breaking was a little bit of everything. Hoofwork, wingwork, conditioning; a fusion of technique and raw physical prowess. Anypony who called it a pursuit for those who didn’t make it out of school or those too simple to pursue higher paying jobs were sorely mistaken. It was an art, it was a labor of love, and it was Thunderlane’s game. A flex of his muscled legs and one sweep of his toned wings brought him into a low-level crosswind that rapidly carried him to his destination.

Bosspony knew what she was talking about. With winds like that, it wouldn’t take long before the vortex tipped and there was an unintentional tornado on the loose. As he approached the cloud wall, Thunderlane felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck and his mane begin to frizz. With reflexes honed from years of weather work and athletic conditioning, he tucked his head, between his front legs and slammed his wings shut, trading altitude for protection as an electrical pulse swept over him like a stray wave at sea. The lightning bolt channeled away, Thunderlane snapped his wings back open, gasping for breath as he surfaced in the electric sea. His skin tingled and his coat hair stuck straight out. At the edge of his senses, he could make out the faint scent of singed hair.

The uneasy feeling of electric shock gave Thunderlane pause. The entire area was primed to explode in a dazzling display of chain lightning and he was right in the middle of it! Channeling one lightning blast was one thing; redirecting a whole sky full was another entirely. Thunderlane gritted his teeth, preparing to dive back in before an idea struck him. The weather pony grabbed a passing cloud, peeling off a piece and smooshing it together with his front hooves. As he sailed toward the cloud wall, Thunderlane fashioned the cloud into a chisel-like wedge and stuck his hooves firmly inside. With a deep breath, Thunderlane tucked his head and dove.

Lightning flashed all around him and thunder boomed in his ears in its wake. He wasn’t going to hear anything for days after, but at least the storm cutter was doing its job. Finally, the lightning flashes fell silent and the reek of ozone was blown away by incoming wind. Thunderlane detached himself from the storm cutter, whirling around before giving it a firm kick out with hind-legs with his hind hooves. The blade-shaped cloud shot forward, punching a slit through the cloud wall. Thunderlane rapidly exploited his opening, slamming into the cloud wall and breaking up the end of it. The stallion recovered from his dive and whirled back around, skimming the surface of the cloud wall with hooves outstretched, peeling away layer after layer of cloud like a dowel on a lathe.

[colour=#008080]“Coming your way, boss!”[/colour] Thunderlane shouted to Stormy as he closed the gap.

[GhostGirl]

Stormy closed her eyes and let herself fly loose through the dense clouds. Electricity crackled over her muscles and clung to her mane and tail as she worked. Her ears flicked this way and that, focusing in on the hints of lightning about to strike, and she dodged each bolt with the skill of a seasoned veteran. It was nearly effortless for her now. Working with weather was second nature. She was the best, after all; that was why she trained weather teams. As she worked, her mind drifted. Lightning Dust and Thunderlane had snapped to and followed orders. They both needed a lesson in good sportsmanship, though. Neither of them seemed to know when to shut their yaps and just get to work. She didn't mind bickering, if it was playful, but there was no room for it in an emergency situation of this sort. Everyone needed to focus on the task at hand, worry about following their orders, and then helping their comrades, no matter their mutual disdain for each other.

"Coming your way, boss!"

Stormy's ears flicked forward as she heard Thunderlane's shout, and she climbed just a little bit higher as they approached each other. Soon she passed over top of him and the wall cloud was gone as gone could be. Her eyes snapped open and she climbed up again, looping back in the direction of Thunderlane and soon lowering her altitude to come up beside him.

"Good work, Mohawk!" The praise was well earned. "Now let's go help the hotshot with that shelf cloud!"

And off she jetted, quickening her pace as she approached the bulk of the storm.

[Apolline Allura]

Her hooves shot out, pounding and kneading the mass down--she had gotten to the thick of it--and was straining, growling. Getting fried hadn't helped Lightning's wings with their ability to get her magic under control. The most she could do until they broke out of the static lock preventing her from really chopping down this chump cumulus was to bash and break it down with her hooves. It wasn't enough. But she had to keep up her efforts. This was battle with a dangerous beast now, and if she failed to do her part, there might be hay to pay for the unattended section gaining strength.

Lightning Dust struggled and shouted against the din of the winds as she rose higher and higher, intent on punching a hole through the sucker in the sky.

The Photo Bomb required her wings to really work. The annoyed pegasus could repurpose it to weaken the shelf cloud from within, but she had little access to her wing magic so far. For what she was about to pull, it was going to require something incredibly stupid. Lightning Dust ascended higher up, to where the bolts of electricity struck with even higher frequency than farther down where the black death did battle with Stormy and Thunderlane and the other rookies.

'I already took a bolt to the knee...and everywhere else. Let's make this count.'

A rumble of thunder, a shot of lightning, and then Lightning shot toward it, catching the electricity against her hooves, and driving it down, down, down into the cloud with a fierce, death-defying cry. Accompanied by the tell-tale streak of jagged blue, she slammed into the shelf cloud, where upon impact, a small mushroom cloud erupted from the hole within as Lightning plunged out of the other side, engulfed in a plume of smoke. The meat of the cloud was broken up at last, but the move also left her stalling out until she managed an emergency landing on a nearby cirrus.

She skidded across the surface on her belly and groaned. That was the second time tonight she had gotten fried trying to shut this son of a mule down. Rolling onto her back, Lightning breathed a sigh of relief when she saw two more pegasi heading in her direction. They'd be able to slice this thing like butter now.

[Dio]

“Showoff!” Thunderlane grumbled.

The massive eruption from the shelf cloud was wreathed in lightning and framed in thunder. Lightning Dust had done it all right, in the most showy way imaginable. Thunderlane cursed under his breath as he jerked his wings back and forth to correct for the sudden gust of wind. The bulk of cloud remained, but the hole Lightning Dust left was enough for them to exploit if they acted quickly. Thunderlane wasted no time.

“There’s our opening! Go time!” He shouted to Stormy above the thunder.

Thunderlane peeled off a bit of cloud to form another storm cutter, winding up with the blade-shaped cloud as if ready to cleave the sky in twain. His hair stood on end as he suddenly became aware of the electric fields that permeated the shelf. It was too late to go back, so instead Thunderlane swung, hoping to take a chunk out of the cloud before the angry electric sea struck back.

[GhostGirl]

Stormy fell back as she watched Lightning Dust battle the storm. It was sloppy, but effective. The rookie needed to tighten up a bit more and learn how to aim, that was for sure. She hard Thunderlane shout to her, but shook her head and fell back a bit farther.

"You've got this, Mohawk! You and the hotshot can finish this monster off in no time. Do it!" her voice rose above the wind, if only barely, and she did her best to maintain a position where she could see t he events that would unfold. The wall cloud was gone and the shelf cloud, while diminished, was still roaring. Bolts of lightning streaked across the sky, visible even through the dark, angry clouds of the storm, and the wind buffeted Stormy around as she watched.

She noted Thunderlane re-using his trick from the wall cloud. "Pretty smart," she thought aloud. Her eyes darted from one pegasus to the other, not only watching, but also analyzing, how they handled the storm.

[Apolline Allura]

She was ready to hit the shelf with Thunderlane, her moment of recovery being just enough to let her get up on her hooves and in the air again. Lightning sped like a bullet in the direction of the storm cutter cleaving apart the denser but weakened areas of the cloud. The blast from earlier proved effective - the charcoal pegasus was tearing this thing up like a bad check.

A rumble of thunder. A blast of lightning, and she was tumbling out of the way in a barrel roll that nearly pushed her into another if she hadn't banked around it. This son of a mule was fighting back!

"Bring it on, motherfeat-"

She was paused by another bolt blasting away once more, not at her, but this time at Thunderlane.

Lightning cursed even harder and was drowned out by the gusting winds and rumbling air. There was still time to finish the attack. The storm cutter could be reformed and she could finish things up. She wasn't sure if there would be another shot at taking this storm down once and for all - Medley was nowhere to be seen, and she and the big guy had been scrapping with it for an upwards of almost twenty minutes now.

Either let another pony who couldn't hang get ate up by this thing, or sacrifice what looked like their one chance at a win.

The bolt of lightning raced for Thunderlane, ready to pound his nerves with electric currents and shockwaves. Lightning Dust gritted her teeth and moved with haste, having made her decision.

She twisted, flying upside down, and pulled back a forehoof. "Back off!"

With a defiant cry, she punched the thunderbolt away from Thunderlane. The storm roared in response, firing several more at the two airbourne ponies. Lightning brooked no quarter from them though, lashing out with punches and kicks from her hind legs at the jagged shapes trying to fry her and her teammate.

[Dio]

Thunderlane was only vaguely aware of the second flier pulling up behind him. He was instead focused on the weak point in the shelf cloud in front of him and the storm cutter resting in his hooves. His blow struck true and the clouds began parting as he whirled around in follow through.

Suddenly, the crackling electric sea around him heaved and before he could bring his blade to parry, the bolt would be upon him. Thunderlane gritted his teeth and prepared for impact. It wouldn’t have been the first time he’d been hit with lightning, but the experience was never pleasant. But the shock and burn never came.

“Back off!”

The battle cry was screamed with the fury of a scorned minotaur cow and its followup was just as ferocious. Lightning Dust might have had an ego the size of Canterlot castle, but she was no slouch when it came to lighting up the sky. A blazing fast punch dispersed the lightning bolt into a million sparks. For once, Thunderlane was glad to share the sky with her.

“Loca, look out!” Thunderlane swung as he yelled above the roaring wind.

Now it was his turn. This would get worse before it would get better. The sky was going haywire as the clouds broke apart and rapidly shifted, throwing the electric sea into a churning maelstrom of sparks and thunder. Thunderlane parried the bolt bound right for Lightning Dust’s back with what was left of the storm cutter, soaking up the charged bolt with the blade and pointing it back to whence it came. A moment later, the bolt discharged through the point of the blade, blowing yet another hole in the shelf cloud.

As the shelf cloud broke up, pockets of stormclouds drifted around them, each crackling with electricity and threatening to shock them into oblivion. The winds swirled wildly, surrounding the two with angry thunderclouds and the rank smell of ozone. There was no easy way out.

“Only way to make it out is to fight. You ready, Loca?”

[Apolline Allura]

They were trapped. There wasn't a hope alive in all of Equestria for them. The only thing that could be done, the only logical idea here, was to stop, and pray.

...the clouds anyway.

Thunderlane's raw power and technique was impressive. Lightning would have tossed him the compliment but was too busy not getting fried, and maybe yes, admiring his well executed skills. She'd have to ask sometime about that awesome blade he was using to slice the harder shelf parts back like butter. And he was from the Academy? What kind of slacking was he even doing at the time? This Thunderlane seemed twice the storm handler he was as a cadet. Maybe he'd been sharpening himself since her suspension. Maybe Spitfire really was making the rest of the ponies she was leaving in the dust into something great.

There was no time for the twinge of regret though. At least not for dwelling on while the black beasts surrounded them, growling and spitting their sparks and peals of lethal voltage.

Floating back to back with Thunderlane, Lightning Dust grinned like a hungry timberwolf and clopped her front hooves together. "I was born ready, Thunderhead. If we take the wind in the opposite direction it's spinning, it'll stop, and we can just eat the rest of these clouds like it's nothing. Now let's rock!"

[Dio]

“Go time!”

With a mighty whirling heave, Thunderlane tossed the remains of the storm cutter into the swirling mass of stormclouds, blowing a notch where he could hook his hooves into the clouds. As he jammed his front hooves into the hoof holds, he flared his wings. Ever so slightly, the clouds slowed down, the wingbeats putting drag on the spinning wheel of storm clouds. Thunderlane gritted his teeth as he strained against the momentum of the clouds.

It was just like strength training at academy wasn’t it? Weights. Resistance training. Tugging on massive rubber bands followed up with dizzytron runs. The instructors were bent on washing them out for certain. Thunderlane already knew he wasn’t gifted in technique. But if there was one thing Thunderlane was good at, it was tenacity, a tenacity he called upon now in his efforts to bring the storm to a grinding halt.

“Loca, any time you wanna jump in would be great!”

[Apolline Allura]

Thunderlane was slowing the storm with all his might - which was definitely more than a little, considering he was actually making headway in bringing her an opening.

Lightning made a move for the endgame, and zoomed in the direction opposite of the storm, putting on a burst of speed. She could feel the magic picking up in her wings, and gritted her teeth for the ride of her life.