Twilight and The Wind-Beasts
It was a stormy night, and Twilight Sparkle couldn’t sleep. Not because she wasn’t tired, but because of what was outside her window: the wind. It blew hard and it blew long. Like some sort of beast, it howled and it shrieked, tearing branches from trees and tossing about anything that wasn’t securely held down to the ground. It sounded angry, it looked angry, and from deep under the covers of her four post bed, Twilight Sparkle knew that it was angry. Peeking her head out from under the covers only the tiniest bit, Twilight looked to her window as branches from her tree home slapped against the glass. At first it was fast, the branches slapped the window like hooves tapping on a table. Then it slowed, getting fainter and fainter until the branch stopped tapping.
She was about to emerge from under the covers and resume trying to sleep when suddenly two glowing orbs appeared at her window, staring into her room. They darted back and forth as if they were searching for something, and Twilight felt her blood chill when they locked with her eyes. She knew what they were, and she knew very well why they were here. As the orbs flashed orange and seemed to grow, she heard the wind kick up again, this time hissing out words that chilled her to the bone.
“Thief!” The wind said, stretching out the word like bread dough. “Thieeeeeeeefffffff!”
The raspy, feather light voice wafted through the walls and surrounded the lavender unicorn. She felt the words enter her ears and slither into her soul. Twilight felt cold, but at the same time she felt a burning sensation as the two orbs continued to glare at her. As much as she wanted to dash under the covers and wait until morning, she knew that she could not. She was frozen, frozen in place by fear and guilt.
“Give usssss back what you sssstooooole!”
With a yipe, Twilight dove under the bed, pulling her blankets and sheets down with her. But no matter how much she tried to cocoon herself under her bed, the wispy words still somehow managed to penetrate her layers of plush protection and bombard her brain.
“Thief!”
“Abssssssconder!”
“Give ussss back it!”
Huddled tight in the blankets, Twilight shivered and fought back the tears that tried to force their way out of their ducts. “If only spike were here”, she thought “he could help me.”
But sadly spike was not there. He had left for the week on the princess’s request, journeying to canterlot for reasons he didn’t quite understand himself. But reasons or not, he was gone and high above in canterlot, completely safe from the wind storm that was currently plaguing Ponyville. A windstorm, mind you, that was completely and utterly their fault.
*****
“Spike! Hurry up! We have to hurry if we are going to make it on time!”
A tired and weary spike trudged down the library stairs, yawing and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “You don’t have to shout, I’m already up.” He stepped off the final step and took a look around the library. In less than fifteen hours it would be lowing wind like never before, but now, as the faintest trickles of light filtered in through the windows and cast everything in a soft light, one would never imagine that a storm was brewing.
“Remind me again why we are,” he stopped to yawn again, scratching at his hind scales. “Why we are up so early again?”
Twilight was already at the front door, magically wrapping a scarf around her neck and levitating a small sweat coat over to her dragon assistant. “I told you, I need to go into the Everfree forest.”
Spike yawned again and grunted as he put the orange fleece coat on, zipping it up tight and pulling the hood over his head. “And that can’t wait till later because?”
Twilight sighed for what had to be the fifteenth time since she woke up. She tended to do that when she was stressed. “Because, what we are looking for can only be found in the early morning, when the sun is barely rising.” Her horn glowed bright and from one of the many book shelves she pulled a rather old and worn looking tome. Bound in brown leather with a gold print flower stamped to the cover, she quickly opened it and flipped through the pages. She stopped and turned the book to spike, showing him a picture of a rather strange flower.
“What Am I looking at?” Spike squinted and cocked his head to the side.
“It’s called “Dawn’s Morning Dew” and it is an incredibly rare flower. It only grows deep in the Everfree forest and only blooms when the sun hits it in the morning.
“If it grows in the Everfree Forrest, can’t you just ask Zecora to get it for you?”
Twilight opened the door and motioned for spike to walk through. “Because after it’s picked you only have ten minutes to make use of it before it wilts! It’s a very fickle flower; now hurry before we lose our chance!”
Begrudgingly, spike followed twilight out the door, slamming it behind him. Twilight walked off ahead, leaving spike hanging back a bit. He looked up at the sky, taking in the still dark sky. Looking towards the horizon, the young dragon could see a few strands of golden sunlight as it began to make its way up to its place in the sky, as well as a few grew clouds.
“Huh. I don’t remember hearing about a storm today. Hey Twilight, Wait up!”
*****
A crash of glass sent Twilight bolting out from under her bed like a bat out of hell. She raced to the door, hoping that she could run hide somewhere down stairs. But just as she was within a hairs length, it slammed shut, sending the lavender pony crashing into its hard wood surface. She was temporarily stunned for the moment, but not stunned enough to miss the pair of orange orbs that zipped in from the outside through the broken window.
“Thief!”
Twilight watched in horror as the orbs settled in the air mere feet from her. The wind outside whistled, blowing in through the broken window and tossing Twilights belongings around the room. It swirled and twisted, circling around the orbs until it formed a sort of body comprised of violent, twisting torrents. Slender legs touched the floor, a lanky tail snapped in the air, and a round head with long ears stared at Twilight. The wind beast growled deeply, gnashing several small cyclones that Twilight assumed were supposed to be teeth.
“You stole! You stole from ussssssss!” It hissed loudly, the orange orbs that were now its eyes shining like miniature suns. There was another whistle from outdoors as two more pairs of orange orbs entered the room, violent winds following them and forming bodies similar to those of their sister beast.
“We have come, Twilight Sssssparkle! We have come for you!”
“No!” Twilight screamed and pressed herself against the door as if it would magically allow her to phase through. “Please I didn’t mean anything!”
“Liessss!” Spoke another of the creatures, this one fatter but with a higher voice. “The unicorn sssspeakssss liesssss!”
The third creature, this one thinner than the rest, spoke in a deep voice that seemed to shake the library with its booming bass. “I say we tear this town apart! Home by home until we find it!”
“Yessss!” said the leader, glaring into Twilight’s eyes. “We will raze thisss town in a tempest flurry! “ The creature’s wind-face seemed to contort into something that resembled a smile, a sinister smile but a smile none the less.
“The wind kin will smash Ponyville, unlesssss we get what we want!”
*****
“Now then, the flower we want will be the only one of its kind. It grows in a patch of grass, surrounded by a ring of blue mushrooms.” Twilight walked along the dirt path into the forest, her horn illuminated and casting light on the levitating book in front of her face.
“Blue mushrooms? Those sound tasty!” spike licked his lips and rubbed his belly smiling.
“Actually, The book says they are highly toxic, and result in cramps, bloating and uh…. Some less pleasant symptoms.”
Spike groaned. “No fair. First I have to get up early, now I don’t even get breakfast! Ugh, this is the worst morning ever!”
Twilight smiled, chuckling and shaking her head. “Oh spike. Don’t worry. Once we get that flower and I can harvest its pollen we can stop by and see Zecora. I’m certain she can give you something.”
Spike nodded, ad set his sights ahead down the path. From on the horizon, pink and gold light welcomed the sun to the waking world, the massive stars round edge poking up over the mountain range, dwarfing the giant peaks of rocks and stone as it climbed higher and higher, inch by inch.
“So uh, what do you want this flower for anyways?”
“According to the book…” Twilight flipped through the book a bit before landing at the desired page. “Ah! Here we go! According to the book, the flowers pollen can be distilled into a liquid that, when mixed into a potion, can be used to reduce the need of sleep! Just imagine what you could do with all those extra hours! Why, I could read twice as many books! I could write more reports for the princess!”
Spike simply shrugged. “Why would you want to sleep less? Sleep is great, I love sleep. I wish I was asleep right now.
“Next time remind me to bring a muzzle”. Twilight grumbled and rolled her eyes. For the next couple of minutes, the pair walked in silence, the only sound being either Twilights hooves as they touched the floor, or from the couple of times spike’s stomach growled in hungry protest. The sun was a bit higher now, and the sky was beginning to turn from black to a very cool, very dark blue. The leaves in the treetops above were wet with dew, which sometimes slid down and dripped on the two travelers. At a fork in the road Twilight consulted her book and, after a moment of indecision, she decided that they were to turn right; down the path where the tree’s arch over and formed a canopy of green leaves.
“It’s really pretty here,” commented spike as he took in the scenery. “I always thought that the Everfree Forrest was… well, Dangerous.”
“It is,” said Twilight, suddenly looking a bit more apprehensive then she did when they first arrived, “But some paths are safer than others. Plus it’s pretty early. I doubt anything big and scary is awake yet.”
Spike gulped. “Big and scary huh? We better not do anything to disturb them then…”
From her window, Twilight watched as the Wind-beasts went to work destroying the town. Shingles and wood panels flew through the air, sometimes colliding with one another and creating a snow of splinters and terracotta shards. Windows burst with the familiar sound of broken glass, and anything not tied down was tossed into the air and made part of a whirling cyclone of debris and other items. The lavender unicorn had to pull her head back inside in order to miss an oncoming fruit stand.
“Give us it!”
“Give it!”
“Return to us what you stole!”
Twilight could feel her eyes sting with tears, or perhaps it was from the dust in the wind. She leaned out her window and shouted to the heavens “I don’t know what you want!”
“Lies!” The wind angrily answered. Thunder boomed as lighting hit a the cobblestone path outside her home, leaving a black scorch mark in its wake. Things were getting dangerous. If she didn’t do something fast, ponyville would be reduced to nothing more than a pile of rubble. Unless…
The unicorn raced to her bedroom door, tearing it open and bursting down the stairs in a lavender blur. With hoof beats like thunder, she made her way into the library, and quickly darted for the kitchen. There on the counter top, next to the sink, in a glass jar law the remains of the “Dawns Morning Dew” flower, no longer bright and majestic but now a wilted mess of petals, leaves, and a rather ropey looking stem. She quickly levitated the jar off the counter, her horn glowing brightly as she raced towards the front door. Throwing it open with all her might, she tossed the jar upwards, into the eye of the storm.
“Here! Take your stupid flower back!” Twilight shouted as loudly as she could, hoping her voice could overcome the swirling winds above. For a moment, the storm seemed to slow. Twilight could feel the winds die down a bit as the jar was lifted upwards in the air, towards the six swirling orbs at the very top. She felt her lungs deflate in a relieved sigh, but yelped loudly instead when he storm picked up again. Like a comet from the heavens, the jar came back down to earth, smashing into hundreds of tiny shards.
“You think us fools, Twilight Sssssparkle!?” The wind seemed to carry the creature’s voices with it, swirling it all around until Twilight felt they were standing right next to her.
“We do not want your weedssss!”
“Then what do you want!?” Her throat felt scratchy as she shouted back.
“We want our totem!” All three voices answered in unison as the glowing orbs descended from the sky, burning like fire and headed straight for Twilight.
*****
“Twilight, Watch out!”
Twilight looked to where spike was pointing in time to see a rather large group of bats flying towards them. Smiling and calmly stepping to the side, Twilight pulled spike over and the two of them watched as the nocturnal creatures flew up in to the tree tops to roost.
“Don’t worry spike. Those are just fruit bats. Completely harmless.”
Spike watched as the bats fluttered into the branches of the overhanging trees, gripping the branches with their feet then proceeding to hang upside down.
“I thought all bats lived in caves?” Spike continued to watch as the two of them continued along the path.
“Some do. Fruit bats roost in trees however, to be closer to their food source.” Twilight watched a couple more bats made their way down the paths, these ones flying higher up then the rest of the group. The sky had gotten brighter, but was still a deep blue. The stars had faded from sight, and now the horizon was a brilliant passion pink and warm gold. A couple birds had already begun to exchange their morning greetings with one another.
“We should probably pick up the pace a bit. I haven’t seen any blue mushrooms yet, and it’s starting to get brighter.”
“Actually,” said spike pointing ahead down the path, “I don’t think we need to hurry at all!”
Twilight looked down the path, his eyes widening as she smiled. No more than a hundred feet ahead of them was a clearing, a large open space filled with grass and surrounded by trees. Even in the low light the duo could see the ring of blue mushrooms, their caps giving off a pale blue light. In the center of the ring were a group of flowers, white petals with orange spots and bright blue strands growing up from the middle of the foliage.
“Dawns Morning Dew!” Twilight squealed with joy and clapped her front hooves together in excitement. “We found them!”
As if channeling the spirit of her friend Pinkie Pie, Twilight bounced down the path, bounding and humming happily to herself. Spike simply trudged along behind her. “I still don’t see what the big deal is about a flower.”
*****
“You cannot hide, Twilight Sssssparkle!”
“We are the wind itssssself!”
“Nothing can keep you sssssafe!”
The wind outside had changed from a torrent to a full blown shriek; all the pain and anger of the beasts made real. The library shook and trembled, its massive body groaning, threatening to uproot itself and topple over at any moment.
Upstairs in her room once again, Twilight frantically tore through her closet, looking desperately for one specific article of clothing. Dresses, coats, scarves and even a few hats were hastily discarded in the same manner that Rarity would use when she was looking for something to wear. But Twilight was not concerned with her attire at the moment. In fact, dressing up was the last thing on her mind.
“Where is it!? Ugh! How hard can it be to find a baby dragons sweat shirt! It’s the only one he owns!”
The crash of yet another broken window caused her to flinch. Her time was running short. A broken window meant an entrance, and an entrance meant a way for those wind creatures to get inside. If she didn’t find what she wanted, a broken window would be the least of her problems.
*****
“Darn!” Twilight sighed in frustration as yet another flower begins to wilt before her eyes. This was the third flower, and she only had two more left. It turns out that harvesting nectar is a lot more difficult then it sounds. Perhaps she should have asked Zecora to do this for her.
“Spike, can you come here? I’m thinking that this would be easier if I had an extra set of… hands.”
Spike was busy looking through a couple of bushes while Twilight tended to the flowers. He didn’t hear her, instead he was on his hands and knees, looking at something of his own.
“Spike? What are you doing over there?”
“I found a rock!” spike stood triumphantly, holding a rock in one hand and pointing to it with the other. “Well, It’s not really a rock, more like some sort of statue thing. But it’s really cool!” he walked over to Twilight, holding the object out for her to see. She levitated it with her magic and took a good look at it. Spike was right, it was a rock of some sort, but it had been carved to resemble some sort of creature with long ears and skinny legs. The rocks surface had swirls drawn into it, and its eyes had been painted orange.
“Well this is strange… you should hold onto it. Maybe we can look it up when we get back to the library. Now come here and hold this flower for me will you?”
Spike shrugged and placed the small carving in one of the sweatshirt’s pockets. He knelt down next to Twilight, placing his hands on the flower as she instructed him to. After a couple minutes of intricate work, Twilight managed to harvest the flowers nectar. Satisfied, she stood up smiled. Her horn glowed as she transformed a nearby rock and a few pebbles into a glass jar and a small bottle. She scrapped the nectar into the bottle, and then proceeded to place the already wilting flower into the large glass jar.
“For study.” She saw Spike eyeing her strangely. “Maybe I can find something else to do with the remains.”
By now the sun was low in the sky, but bright enough to illuminate the forest in early morning light. The pair could hear animal sounds from deep within the forest. Growls and chirps, chuffs and the occasional waking roar.
“Twilight, we should probably get… oh!” Spike belched, a puff of smoke escaping his mouth. He blushed, then belched again, and finally a third time, producing a scroll that hung in the air for a moment then dropped into his awaiting hands.
“Oh. Hey it’s a letter from the princess!” Spike unfurled the piece of paper, braking the golden horseshoe seal and reading it allowed for an eagerly awaiting Twilight Sparkle.
“Ahem. Dear Spike. I will be attending a meeting between me and a visiting dignitary from another country, and would ask you to attend and dictate the details of the meeting. Normally I would have the royal stenographer do it for me, But they are sick today. Enclosed with this note is a teleportation scroll, designed to specifically teleport you to the meeting hall should you choose to attend. You will be compensated for your time in the sum of fifty bits per hour.
Sincerely yours,
Princess Celestia.”
“Wow Spike! That’s so cool! You get to attend a meeting, a royal meeting! Oh I am so jealous!”
Spike took the teleportation scroll attached to the letter and smiled proudly. “Well, when you write so many letters to the princess, you tend to get pretty good at taking notes. Plus, fifty bits an hour isn’t bad at all!”
“It certainly isn’t!” Twilight smiled, proud of her friend. Spike looked at the sky for a minute, then down at this jacket.
“I probably shouldn’t show up at the palace looking like this.” He unzipped his sweat shirt and handed it to Twilight, how used her magic to tie it around her waist.
“Much better.” Spike smiled then broke the seal on the teleportation scroll. “Alright then. I better get going! Don’t want to keep the princess waiting!” He opened the scroll and was instantly surrounded by a fogof purple mist. It enveloped him like a blanket, then dissipated, leaving nothing behind as it zipped away towards the castle.
Twilight watched the smoke cloud until she could no longer see it, then, double and triple checking to make sure she had everything, she trotted off down the dirt path, humming to herself as she headed home.
*****
Windows exploded and the tree house shook violently. Having given up hope of finding spike’s jacket, the purple unicorn had taking up refuge in her closet, having pulled everything from every hanger and creating a mound of clothing for her to hide under.
“Twilight….”
“Sssssparkle!”
Twilight shivered as the creatures called her name, their voices sending shivers down her spine. Their voices were as sharp and fierce as the wind. No matter how many clothes she piled on top of her head, Twilight was unable to muffle the voices. It was like they were the very air itself; every inch of oxygen was simply another extension of their collective voices.
“Twilight…”
“Twilight…”
“SPARKLE!”
Twilight screamed as the face of one of the creatures appeared in front of her, its wispy body penetrating the various folds of the laundry she had piled on top of herself. Like a bullet, Twilight shot out of her shelter, bolting through the creatures face. She looked back only to see the wispy winds scatter, then reform and take the shape of the creature, this time directly above her. Hovering in mid air, the creature’s mouth pulled back into a sinister smile.
“We are tired of your hiding!”
“I’m sorry!” Twilight pleaded with the creature as tears stung her eyes. “I can’t find your totem! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to steal it!”
“Lies!” The creatures shout was emphasized by the sudden surge in the storm. The angrier they seemed to get, the more violent the storm became. There seemed to be no calming the creatures, not unless they got what they wanted.
“Please… It was an accident! We didn’t know what it was! We didn’t know it was yours! Please stop! I promise we can work this out! We can be friends if you just stop destroying the town!” Twilight’s voice was shaking. She tried to sound as sincere as she could, but it was evident from the storms growing intensity that the creature did not believe her.
“Sssssilence! Your words are full of liesssss! We do not want to be friendsssss!”
“Maybe… Maybe if I had a little more time? If you stop the storm I could look some more and…”
“Liesssss!” The creatures voice boomed and the library shook. “We are tired of waiting! First you ssssssteal! Then you trick ussssss with your weedsssss! We will find our totem our ssssself, and devoir all who stand in our way! Sssssstarting with you!”
Like a vacuum cleaner, the Creatures mouth formed and “O” shape, and began to inhale everything around it. Furniture, clothing and other bedroom objects were lifted off the ground and began to spin around in the air as they were sucked into the creatures awaiting maw. Twilight clung to her bed, but found it futile when her back end was lifted up off the ground.
The bed was the heaviest object in her room. With the plush mattress, blankets, and heavy box springs resting on top of the solid oak frame, it would take a tornado to lift it. But Twilight’s confidence in the her anchor quickly began to wane as the bed creaked and began to scoot across the floor.
“Please! You don’t have to do this!” Twilgiht's voice was all but a shrill scream over the sound of the cyclone now raging in her room. “Please stop, I can-“
Her word were cut off when something soft hit her in the face. She felt her hooves slip, and soon found herself flying through the air towards the creatures open mouth.
“Nothing can save you Sssssparkle! You and your precious town are doomed!”
Tumbling through the air, Twilight shook the object off her face, and then gasped as it floated away above her. “Spike’s jacket!” She hollered in surprise. She twirled in the air, grasping for the coat as it floated out of her reach. With a groan of annoyance, she closed her eyes and concentrated, her horn sparkling purple as she channeled her magical energies at the coat. Sweat trickled from her brow and rolled down her face as she mustered all her strength. Casting magic was one thing, but casting magic while tumbling through the air and being bombarded by other objects was a different, and all together painfull experience.
“Sill unicorn!” The creature hissed tauntingly. “Your magic will not save you now! Nothing can! We are the wind itself! Our power is infinite and everlasting! You cannot stop us, no pony can stop us!”
“No pony huh?” Twilight opened her eyes and grinned. She pulled the jacket towards her, its form enveloped in lavender energies, and pulled the totem from its pocket. “Hope you don’t mind if I smash this then!”
The creatures orange eyes flickered, its mouth closed, and everything that was flying through the air fell to the ground with a loud crash. Twilight hit the ground hard, her back aching as she stood up, still magically holding on to the totem. For a moment, she thought she saw a look of intense hatred on the creatures face.
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Try me!” She elevated the totem to the top of the room, until it almost touched the ceiling, then called off her magic and let it fall.
“Nooooo!” The creature howeled, its body transforming into air and soaring over to its precious object. But before it could envelope the totem, it vanished with a “pop” and reappeared next to twilight, still hovering in midair.
“Shall I demonstrate again” Twilight grinned and began to slowly levitate the totem upwards.
“No!” the creature held out a leg, indicating for her to stop. “Please Twilight Ssssparkle! Have Mercy!”
“Mercy!?” Twilight shouted at the creature. “Was attacking the town an act of “mercy”!? Was destroying my home, or threatening me “merciful”?”
The creature shirked from her response, hanging its head and pawing at the ground. It actually looked genuinely ashamed by its actions. “Please Twilight Ssssparkle… Forgive us for our actions! We love that totem! It means so much to ussss! It calms ussss, it is our friend!”
Twilight eyed the creature suspiciously, but brought the totem back down to her level. “It’s really important to you then?”
The creature nodded pitifully. “It was made long ago and far away… It was made to calm us, so we did not storm… It helps ussss, it easssesss usss. It sssssingssss to usssss… you cannot hear it because you are unicorn and not wind-beassssst, but it ssssings songssss. Beautiful ssssongssss. Sssongsss that help us Ssssleep. It is our friend and we love it…”
Twilight didn’t respond, rather, she simply looked over the totem. Outside the storm was still raging, as fierce and loud as ever. But the creature before her seemed to be sincere in it’s remorse. If the totem is what calmed them, it would certainly explain why they attacked the town.
“I’ll return this to you… but only if you call off the storm and never return to Ponyville. Promise?”
The creature nodded rapidly. “Yes Twilight Ssssparkle, I promise!”
Twilight nodded, then tossed the totem to the creature, who gleefully jumped at it and encased it In its swirling form, laughing and giggling as it flew through the air and sailed out the broken bedroom window.
“Ssssssleep! Brothersssss and sssssisters we can ssssssleep!” There was a clap of thunder that shook the library, and then silence. Twilight trotted over to her window and looked outside. Branches and debris littered the streets, but aside from a few broken vending stands and a couple of windows, the town looked intact for the most part. Out on the horizon near the setting sun she could see a trail of air, and several orange dots making their way to the Everfree Forrest.
Twilight sighed, exhausted from her ordeal and wanting nothing more than to go to bed. She turned around, hoping to climb under the covers, but realized the state her room was in. Clothing was strewn about, books were scattered, and every single piece of furniture was either turned on the wrong angle or in the wrong spot. She felt her compulsive need to clean start to bubble inside her, but quickly shook her head and dismissed it. Upon finding a pile of clothes that had been tossed to the floor, she settled down on them for the remainder of the night. She would clean in the morning, but would wait for spike to show up before she did. After all, this was his fault to.
