Chapter 4

Blossomforth cracked open her eyes to the new day with an optimistic state of mind.  Today was a new day and she was determined that it would be a completely normal day.  With a smirk and fire in her eyes, Blossomforth flung the covers aside and jumped out of bed.

“Whaaa!-oof!”

At least that’s what she meant to do.  It seemed that her head had somehow ended up facing the wrong way while she was asleep.  So when she moved to sweep the covers off herself all she accomplished was to roll off the opposite side of her bed, taking her sheets with her.  She found herself wedged between her bed and the wall, chin on the floor, and cocooned in her sheets, unable to move her front legs.

Blossomforth scowled as she huffed a piece of hair out of her eyes.

“Really? Won’t even let me have this?”

With an annoyed roll of her eyes Blossomforth rotated her head into the proper position the bones in her neck creaking and snapping as she did.  She wanted to try to spend the day without weirdness but she couldn’t resist cheating a bit and lengthened her neck slightly to see over the edge of her bed.  She found that her hind legs and torso were fused together in a puddle of flesh and had decided to stay on the bed while the rest of her tumbled out.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!  I try to be a normal and optimistic pony and look where it gets me!”

Blossomforth puffed out her cheeks in cute frustration as she proceeded to liquify the rest of her body minus her head and flow out of the sheets and up the wall bringing her head and neck with her out of the gap between her bed and wall.  She flowed to the adjacent wall away from her bed stepped out of the puddle of muscle into her pony form.

Blossomforth resigned herself to the fact that she would probably not be having a normal day.  No matter, she would not let it get her down.  She hummed a gay tune as she stepped into the hot shower, warming up those muscles for her routine morning stretch.  She dried herself, brushed her teeth and trotted down the stairs to do her morning yoga.

As Blossomforth began to stretch she frowned.  The addicting stretch of stiff muscle she was used to was not present.  Stretching was just too easy, but she needed her fix somehow or she would not last the day!  Blossomforth sighed, she knew what she had to do.

Bloss got a colander from the kitchen and propped it up between the table and the couch.  She stuck her hoof into the colander and sighed.  It came out the other side looking like spaghetti.  She felt the stretch deeply as her surface area dramatically increased.  She lowered her other hoof then her torso and back legs being supported by the stringy mass below.  Her head was left above the collander groaning in pleasure at the deep stretch.  Finally she lowered her head and it too split into a spaghetti-like mass of muscle.  Bloss fused together and emerged as a pony from her stretch.

“Wow, that really felt good…”

She knew from Thingpone’s instinct that stretching like this would slowly improve her ability to quickly take forms that required lots of surface area, splitting herself apart for example.  Well, she supposed this would now be a part of her new “normal” routine.

Bloss went to the kitchen and poured herself some cereal.  She slowly ate and ruminated.  She was almost done when suddenly there was a banging on the door.

“Hey Bloss!  Come on out!  Emergency weather duty!  Big storm coming out of the Everfree.  We need all hands on deck!  Rainbow says it’s going to be a doozy!”

Blossomforth groaned softly. Perfect!  First big storm of the year right on the day after she got turned into some sort of eldritch abomination!

“Alright Thunderlane, I’m coming!”

Bloss shoved the rest of the cereal down her throat.  This would be the first time she was in public after her transformation.  She was a bit worried but Thingpone’s concealment instinct would keep her firmly in pony form.  Bloss briskly walked out the door shutting it behind her.

“How are you doing Bloss?  You seem a bit troubled.”

“Ah, just got a lot on my plate at the moment.  Anyways, let’s get going.”

They both started flying over to the meeting spot.

“I haven’t seen a storm system like this in a while.” Said Thunderlane. “Sometimes it seems like the Everfree is taking it’s vengeance out on us for trying to tame nature.”

“Huh, well I certainly hope it isn’t that bad.”

As they approached the clearing they could see the looming forms of multiple thunderheads and the distant flash of lightning in the horizon above the Everfree, a distant front of storms moving to obscure the rising sun.

Closer to earth was Cloud Chaser showing off her backbend, sticking her tongue out at Blossomforth, and winking (https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/12/19/788157.png).  Bloss was not in the mood, they were good friends and she usually had contests with her before weather duty to see who was more flexible, Bloss usually won, but this time there would be no challenge or satisfaction.

“All right!  Listen up!” shouted Rainbow Dash. Everyopony, about 30 of them, stopped stretching and warming up to face Rainbow. “You see those thunderheads out there?”  The sky was rapidly turning darker as the thicker clouds obscured the sun. “Coudsdale’s meteorologists say this is a squall line.  We have about five cell systems coming right at us each with the potential to produce tornados.  This is going to be a challenge, I need you all at the top of your game if we are going to soften up these storms enough to prevent damage and flooding.”

“It looks like we also have a supercell near the tail of that squall.”  Several ponies gasped.  Supercells were the most dangerous type of storm and most likely to produce tornados.  Usually, a storm system was made up of many cells.  Newly forming cells were triggered from updrafts of unstable air near the front of the system in a chain reaction, in the middle cells were mature, producing strong downdrafts and lots of rain,  near the end of the system the old cells petered out into a wispy cloud cover.  However, supercells consisted of one enormous cell that usually formed where a warm and cold front met, producing a rotational movement that tended to produce tornadoes.

“I need my most experienced weatherponies with me.  We will be taking on this beast of a supercell.  The rest of you need to form teams of five to take out the remaining four systems.  Remember your training, go after the small forming cells to break the system’s chain and use the unstable air in front of the system to form wide a wide cloud-cover of rain.  Alright, get ready to form groups.”

Rainbow pointed out the most experienced ponies to join her team, ponies like Thunderlane, Cloud Kicker, Silverspeed, Rain Dance, Jetstream, and Cloud Chaser. She then motioned to four others including Blossomforth to come over.  “I want you four to lead teams to take out the smaller systems.  Show some of the more green weatherponies how it’s done.  Dismissed!”

Bloss formed up her team.  It consisted of Derpy, Liliac Sky, Spring Step, and sunshine raindrops.  Blossomforth cleared her throat.

“Alright, I know that not all of you have cleared a thunderstorm before but follow my lead and instructions and we should be fine.  So, we will be taking on the system nearest to the supercell at the southern end of the squall line.  We’ll go in there to break up the newly forming cell and create some downdrafts to disperse the upward momentum of the forming cell into a wide cloud cover.  Then we’ll spread out in front of the system and neutralize the unstable air into even more rainy cloud cover spreading it across the sky. This will spread the energy out and reduce the severity of the storm.  Any questions?”

“Will it be windy?” asked Derpy.

“Not much near the front of the storm.  You just need to be careful for the updraft which we will be dispersing. Everyone ready?”

Four heads nodded. Bloss signaled her readiness to Rainbow.

“Alright everypony, good luck and stay safe.” Rainbow Dash and her team of ten weatherponies lifted off.  The other four teams of five lifted off after.

“V formation, two on each side of me, we will be following Rainbow Dash’s team and peeling off to our storm.” Blossomforth ordered.

The storms were still a long way off, the occasional flash of lightning could be seen from each of the multi-celled systems.  The supercell seemed to be constantly crackling with electricity.

After about 15 minutes of flight, the wind started to pick up and they peeled away from the Rainbow Dash team.  Blossomforth’s system loomed in front of them, each cell forming like a step in a stair case with the smallest ones in front.

Bloss pointed to the smallest cell.  “You see that smallest cell?“  The others nodded.  “We will be aiming in front of that and we’ll take out the cell that will form there.”

The storm system loomed above them, the more mature cells rumbled with thunder.  “Alright, we are almost there.  Get ready to channel your pegasus magic and crate a downdraft” Bloss shouted.

Hot, moist air started to pick upwards.  “Now! Downdraft!”  They flapped their wings
and they countered the updraft, cloud cover formed below them.  Blossomforth glanced behind her and the mature cells started to rain out, the thunder fading away.  However in the distance the supercell was getting worryingly large and she saw the entire storm begin to rotate.

“Good job gals, I am going to go check on Rainbow’s group and see if I can help.  Make your way to Ponyville, cut through the unstable air, and form rainclouds on your way there.  Also, tell everyone in Ponyville to take cover in their cellars just in case.”

“Are you worried about the supercell, Blossomforth?” asked Spring Step.

“Yes, I am.  Be sure to make lots of rainclouds on your way back and you might want to take cover when you get there.”

“Stay safe, Bloss.” said Derpy.

“I will.”

Blossomforth turned to fly towards the supercell.

The enormous citadel of a storm only seemed to bet bigger as she flew closer.  It was like a corkscrew, the entire storm turning in a slow vortex motion(http://i.imgur.com/j59I2cC.jpg).

Rainbow dash and her team could be seen flying in the opposite direction of the corkscrew, scoping out the storm. The storm was still calm, building up to release it’s ferocious load of rain and wind upon the world.

Rainbow flew out to meet her. “Thanks for coming Bloss, we are going to need all the wingpower we can get.  We’re not going to try to stop this monster, instead we are going to steer it away from Ponyville.  We need to get it done and get out of here before that storm collapses down on us.”

“What can I do to help?”

“I need you and a few others to build a low pressure system on the west side of the storm to attract it in the direction of the everfree away from ponyville.  I’ll stay here on the east side with a few ponies and build up a high pressure system to repel the storm towards your low pressure area. Go with them, get to it!”

Blossomforth’s group began riding the current of the vortex clockwise around the storm to the west side.  Her group consisted of Thunderlane, Cloud Kicker, Cloud Chaser, and Cerulean Skies.

“Alright, everyone” said Thunderlane.  We’re doing this nice quick and clean.  I am not sure how much longer this storm will hold it’s fury so we need to do this soon.  Let’s get the low pressure system going and corral this storm!”

The five of them organized themselves in a circular formation and channeled their pegasus magic to repel the wind.  Slowly but surely the supercell began to change direction away from Ponyville and back to the everfree where they were located. Everything was going great, a possible disaster was averted.

Blossomforth turned to look at the large storm.  It was majestic but something seemed off about it.  It was too still and it even seemed to stop rotating.  Suddenly a bulbous protrusion poked out of the bottom of the clouds rapidly accelerating towards them.

“MICROBURST!  GET DOWN!” bellowed Thunderlane.

Adrenaline rushed into Blossomforth’s bloodstream.  As one, they dived towards the Everfree forest.

Storms form when warm humid air rises in a low pressure environment, building tall stormclouds with their violent updrafts.  Warm air rises, cold air sinks.  These strong warm updrafts form a lot of potential energy in the form of water vapor.  All of this warm air would begin to cool in the upper atmosphere and once the updraft lost it’s energy, the mass of cooled air would collapse downward and accelerate back to the ground with violent rain, hail, and wind.  The stronger the storm the more violent these downdrafts would be.  In particularly strong storms, these downdrafts could form strong, quick focused bursts called a microburst, strong enough to flatten forests in their wake.  Microbursts are extremely dangerous to any airborne creature.  The stormclouds could mask it’s approach before anyone could notice, leaving any pegasus with little time to react.

In a supercell storm such as this, they had no chance.  They were doomed.

The maw of the storm opened, the wrath of the storm barreled at them with wild abandon.  A gigantic projectile of gale force winds, hail, and water.  They increased the speed of their dive but it was not enough.

The microburst reached them and swatted them the way one would swat a fly.  Blossomforth’s world was chaos.  Her team which was once next to her was gone.  She was spinning without any control, the howl of the wind roaring in her ears.  She had no idea which way was up or down.  Hail the size of grapefruits violently broke her bones. She reduced her form to a blob of flesh to save her from the projectiles.

WHAM, Blossomforth was violently impaled by a splintered tree trunk and splattered against the floor of the forest.  The sudden deceleration dazed Bloss a bit but the impact was effectively absorbed by her elastic nature.

She groggily reformed herself when suddenly- CRACK.  What she thought was thunder was actually the sound of every bone in Thunderlane’s body being broken at the same time as his body smashed into the ground.

Blossomforth stared in mute horror at the body of Thunderlane,  His spine was jutting out of his neck.  His limbs and torso had jagged bones piercing the skin.  Amazingly, he was still conscious.

“W-wow, you’re still alive Bloss?”

“Y-yes, s-stay with me Thunder!”

“I guess we saved Ponyville, t-tell my family I-I’ll always be with… them…”

“N-no!”

Blossomforth was distraught, Thunderlane closed his eyes.  He was rapidly bleeding out.  Blossomforth was on the verge of panic, what could she do?

Then she remembered.

Blossomforth began involuntarily salivating.  Thingpone’s tongue snaked out of her mouth and around the lifeless form of Thunderlane, picking him from the ground.  Her maw and throat widened until it was large enough to swallow Thunderlane whole.  Thingpone processed him, savoring the new experience of a male anatomy and rippling muscles of an athlete.

Blossomforth knew that there were others that needed to be consumed quickly before they died and the awakened Thingpone was only too happy to oblige.  Thunderlane was now fully consumed.  Thingpone exploded like a pinata, dividing into many masses of muscle that each quickly formed into squirrels and birds.  They scrambled and flew in all directions hunting for their prey.  In seconds they found two others and the small animals converged and fused onto the barely conscious, twitching, dying, broken bodies of Cloud Kicker and Cerulean Skies, and rapidly assimilated them.

Thingpone quivered in a blob un unformed muscle.  She panted from her many mouthes, her muscle shaking like jello from the pleasure induced from assimilating others.  Blossomforth slowly recovered and gradually took her pony form.  A sudden stifled gasp from some bushes surprised her and she snapped her head to face it.

Blossomforth slowly stood up and paced her way to the bushes.  She finally had a moment to obvserve her surroundings.  Every tree in a half mile radius was flattened to the ground by the ferocious microburst, and the sun was beginning to peer from behind the clouds.

Bloss brushed away the bush and peered inside.  Cloud Chaser was slumped against the root of the bush, three of her legs and both of her wings severely broken.  Her only working forehoof retracted in a fetal position.  However, most striking was the look of absolute terror and the whimper that escaped her mouth as she faced Blossomforth.

“He-hey Cloud.”

Cloud Chaser began to cry and sob.  “P-please don’t eat me.”

“I-I won’t eat you, Cloud Chaser.”

“R-really?”

Blossomforth sighed, “Really.”

“Why did you eat the others but not m-me.”

“Because they were close to dying and needed saving.  I need your help Cloud.”

“W-why should I help you, you m-monster?”

Seeing her friend call her a monster hurt her to her core. “Because I’m your old friend Blossomforth and I need your help to save our friends.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Blossomforth tapped her chin with a hoof.  “We have had a total of 56 yoga competitions and I have beaten you in every single one except for three.  You snort when you laugh and sleeptalk about ‘getting that booty’.  Your first time was with Thunderlane, I walked in on you and embarrassed you both by wolf whistling very loudly.”

“Aright, alright I get it.  I believe you.  What happened to you anyway?  Were you always like this?”

“I’ll tell you everything if you agree to my terms.  Now, do you want me to fix your broken bones?”

“How are you going to do that?”

“By dissolving and regrowing your leg using your DNA information.”

“A-Alright.  I guess if you wanted to eat me I would have already been eaten.  Heal me I suppose.”

“I guess you are right.  Now don’t panic, I am just going to fix your legs and wings.”

Bloss sprouted five tentacles from her back.  Cloud Chaser flinched but Blossomforth continued.  They engulfed each of Cloud Chaser’s broken limbs and started to dissolve them.  Cloud’s eyes widened as her broken limbs started to dissapear.

“You are eating me!  You promised!”

“I am not eating you!  Just give me a second!”

Cloud Chaser’s limbs began to reform unbroken.  Blossomforth clandestinely inserted a slug into Cloud Chaser that buried itself into the base of her skull.

“Wow, that was amazing.”  Cloud Chaser said as she flexed her healed limbs.  “Let’s get out of this bush.”

“Just so you know, I didn’t eat anypony.  I assimilated them.  I can regrow their bodies and bring their consciousness out of stasis whenever I want.  This was the only way to save them.  They were on the verge of death and I needed to preserve them before they died.  I don’t want ponies to know about me but I didn’t see a way to get us home safely without ponies asking questions about our lack of injuries.  I need your help for that.”

“I don’t know Bloss.  What if I don’t help you?  I think we should just go back and come clean.”

“Cloud, I really don’t want to but if I have to I will assimilate you, erase your memory of this conversation, and risk the ponys’ questions.”

“Yo-you can do that?”

“Yeah, but I would rather not.”

“Alright, fine. I’ll go along. What’s the plan?”

Blossom sensed some doubts in Cloud Chaser’s mind through her slug but she let it slide for now.

“We are going to fly to the edge of the Everfree.  I’ll grow the others’ bodies and insert their consciousness but give them a few broken bones and I’ll give each of us broken wings so that our story is believable.  It won’t be anything severe, they’ll heal in a few weeks or sooner if you want my help.

“We will cary them to Ponyville on our backs and tell people that we found them after we crashed and carried them back to Ponyville on our backs.  When the others wake up and find their injuries are not as severe as they remember it, we will blame shock induced hallucination.

“You also have to promise not to tell anypony about me.”

“Alright, Bloss.  Let’s get going.  How did this happen to you anyway?”

“It happened yesterday after a mysterious meteorite crashed right next to where I was stretching.  My running theory is that I was fused to an alien that crash landed here.”

“Are you sure that you aren’t an alien?.”

“Nope, still little old Blossomforth.” Sometimes I wonder though, she thought.

They began their flight, the trees were saturated with water and the river below them was close to overflowing.  Blossomforth spied the first signs of civilization on the horizon and signaled Cloud Chaser to land.  Bloss began to grow the unconscious bodies of Cloud Kicker, Thunderlane, and Cerulean Skies, inserting their consciousness, adding in some broken legs and wings into the mix.  Cloud was more than a little disturbed but she hid her discomfort.

“Alright, I am going to replace your wings with broken ones.”

Cloud flinched slightly as Blossomforth’s tentacles engulfed Cloud’s wings and replaced them with slightly broken ones.  Blossomforth shifted her own wings into a much more gruesome looking break.

She tied splints made of branches and vines with her tentacles on her and Cloud Chaser’s wings, and the other ponys’ broken limbs.

“Ok, you carry Cloud Kicker and I’ll carry Cerulean Skies and Thunderlane.  We’ll ask for a paramedic chariot to the first pony we see.  Remember, we crashed because of a microburst.  We broke our wings but our legs were fine.  We found the others unconscious but we were able to tie everyone in splints and we carried them back here.  Anything they say that does not fit with our story was caused by shock induced hallucination.”

“Got it.”

They trotted towards Ponyville carrying the survivors.  They saw Fluttershy in the distance putting birdfeed out for her birds.

“Hey Fluttershy!” yelled Blossomforth. Fluttershy looked up with a surprised look.  “We need help, we have injured!”

“Oh my!  Come inside and lay them on the couches.  Rainbow put together a big search party to look for you!”

They all walked into Fluttershy’s cottage and laid the three unconscious weatherponies on the couches.

“We had to hike our way out of the Everfree because our wings were broken, but these three need immediate medical attention.” said Cloud Chaser.

“Yeah, we got knocked out of the sky by a horrible microburst.  Fluttershy, do you think you can alert the hospital and get a paramedic chariot out here?  We can’t, our wings are broken.” Said Blossomforth.

“O-of course!  Sit tight, I’ll be right back with them.”

Fluttershy briskly exited and closed the door behind her.  She took off flying in the direction of Ponyville.  Blossonforth and Cloud Chaser were alone in Fluttershy’s cottage.

Blossomforth closed her eyes, sat on the couch next to Thunderlane, took a deep breath, and sighed.  “You are a good friend Cloud Chaser, but I know that you are planning to tell Twilight about me as soon as this is over.”  Cloud suddenly bolted for the door, but her muscles seized when she was about to turn the door knob as Blossomforth asserted her will over Cloud via her slug.  Blossomforth stood up and walked to Cloud Chaser. “Unfortunately, I can’t let you do that, Cloud.  I don’t even blame you, I would have probably done the same thing.  Just relax, I’ll only take your memory about my new nature.  Thank you for helping me and being a good friend over the years.”  Blossomforth embraced Cloud’s frozen body in a hug.

“Y-you have a great responsibility, Bloss,” Cloud struggled to speak. “D-don’t loose yourself.”

“I won’t.”

Cloud closed her eyes and focused on the spreading warmth of the hug as Thingpone engulfed her, spreading from the embrace.  Blossomforth assimilated Cloud Chaser, carefully modified her memory, and gently set Cloud’s new body on the couch next to the others.

In the distance, the chariot neared, Fluttershy followed close behind.  Blossomforth stared out the window in melancholy as the chariot approached, she hoped that she would be able share her troubles with Cloud Chaser but it seemed she would have to find someone else.