Chapters “For generations, we have traveled north to test our merits against the harshest elements. Now, as our mothers and fathers before us did, we face the storm.”
Cyclone Chasers
Before he ever had a chance to comprehend it, his vision was blocked by a shroud of gray darker than his fur. Then it became darker and darker still until nothing was visible beyond the clouds. He turned his head and looked up and back down again but there was no light to be seen, not even a crack of it. His wings strained against the wind as another gale blowed against his side and he twirled wildly in the torrent. For a moment he lost control and tumbled in mid air.
It was wild and dizzying, and he wasn’t sure how far he was above the ground, but years of practice and a little bit of instinct leveled him off again. The pegasus strained his ears but couldn’t sense if any of his friends were nearby. Not that it mattered, the rushing air made talking impossible as soon as he was airborne but at least seeing them would have helped. Buckeye’s body relaxed as he mentally prepared himself to not fight the storm any longer. Giving up control oddly enough gave him a feeling of sheer exuberance. Flying blind, and floating. He breathed deep, a sensation of extreme calm, and wild excitement, all in the same instance roiled inside his chest. Buckeye smiled, there was nothing for it than to let the tunnels of air guide him towards a new experience. He let out a whoop of excitement and let the air flow pull him to the center of the storm.
“That had to be the best storm ride ever!” Parasol danced in small circles around her friends as they came in for a landing from the receding gray clouds and beating thunder. Each of them congratulated the other on another day of mastery over the elements. Soon, as the light faded, the small group started leaving the valley. It’d do no good to walk back in the much colder night. As they went along, a larger dark orange stallion named Rusty Oak nudged Buckeye’s shoulder and smiled.
“I saw you take on that twister in the middle, Buckeye. All by yourself too. Didn’t think you had it in you.” Buckeye found it easier to lift his hooves over the deep snow after being warmed by the compliment.
“I guess I did alright,” He said.”It would have been better if-”
“If you don’t count the fact it took ten minutes to dig his frozen tail out of the drifts after he wiped out!” Parasol interrupted, she had reached Buckeye and Rusty Oak on her third pass in her jubilant exertion to work off extra energy. Her statement elicited laughter from the group that Buckeye took in stride.
“Yeah? Well at least I feel into the soft stuff and not a solid wall like Whirligig over there.” A deep blue mare with a lighter blue mane scowled and feigned to punch the gray stallion in the side, but he ducked leapt clear with a laugh.
“That’s Whirlpool you clod head!” scowled Whirlpool. “ And you have no right to complain, you went down twice as much as anyone else!”
Buckeye stuck out his tongue as he continued to tease. “This is the first time I’ve ever flown in one of these storms and this is your, what, fourth year? So what exactly is your excuse for still having the sense of direction of a foal?” This brought on a few gasps and more laughter.
“Wow, are you gonna let the new guy talk to you like that, Whirlpool?” Asked a light maroon mare named Sugarcane.
“No. Clear the way!” Parasol and Rusty stepped clumsily backwards in the deep snow as the blue pegasus plowed past. Buckeye had a headstart but felt he was strong enough to fly. In a few wingbeats he was airborne and soaring the rest of the distance towards the ridge, laughing the whole way, Whirlpool just behind him.
As the storms settled and left the landscape empty and peaceful, eight pegasi made it to the village nestled on the other side of the ridge. Weary wings tucked against their sides, yet still warm from the elation and thrill that came from riding in the midst of wild weather, as they called it, chaotic weather patterns natural or otherwise that happened with no intervention of pegasus magic. It would be best to get inside before the temperature dropped any further. It would freeze again tonight, a typical thing high in the Crystal peaks.
They clambered back down into a narrow straight, a small canyon of sorts. On either side the wall of rock was high, protecting them from most of the wind but the snow that covered the mountaintop still fell freely into the canyon. The village sat firmly in between the canyon walls. Created from a combination of ice and dark stone, surrounded by another smaller pony made wall for extra protection, from a distance it looked like a few natural caves had also been converted into shelters. Gray smoke plumed calmly from the chimney of the largest wooden building that sat in the middle of the complex. Fennel,an elderly mare colored an olive green emerged from the central cabin to greet them.
“So I see you finally decided to get back, you managed to get here before moonrise at least.” The old pegasus dragged her forehoof into the snow in exasperation at her returning friends.
An icy grey pegasus with light green hair stepped forward and nuzzled Fennel apologetically.“We’re sorry, Fen. Sometimes the storms dissipate slower than usual, and some of us want to ride it out to the last.”
Fennel huffed. “Well at the very least you could have left me anyone other than Buoy. Clumsy colt couldn’t cut an onion if his life depended on it, I would have much rather had your help!”
“Onions you say? So that means dinner is on,right?” Rusty Oak interrupted the two older mares with a hopeful expression on his face.
“Regardless of my wonderful assistant, soup is on the simmer, don’t worry at all about that.” said Fennel. She turned and cantered back toward the entrance. “You all can tell me how you fared against the wind and thunder on a full stomach, come on inside!”
The village itself was little more than an outpost re discovered decades ago by pony explorers traveling into the Frozen North. But after extensive repairs, the small huddle of cabins served a fine purpose of housing the dozen or so pegasi who made the effort to travel high into the Crystal Mountains once every two years, to experience a strange yet naturally occurring phenomenon known as the Aurora’s Yawn. A brief period lasting roughly two weeks, where the cold yet quiet landscape became filled with wildly blowing winds, twisting cyclones, and dark ominous clouds set in a low valley they called Cyclone Coast, a stretch of snow and wilderness that seemed to never end.
Unlike most pegasi who would rather avoid uncontrolled weather whenever possible, these few took to it like surfers to the waves. A challenge of nature that they delighted in experiencing. And for some it reminded them of a time in history when this kind of weather was a natural enemy of pony kind. A time where they possessed little to no control of the land and were much lower on the food chain.
“It’s getting late, catch you in the flow tomorrow, alright?” Said Sugarcane as she sleepily removed herself from the table and went out to find her cabin. There was only half an hour till twilight, the horizon’s colors were beginning to fade and it wouldn’t be long before the moon princess performed her duty and raised the moon to the top of the sky. A few others decided it was time to turn in as well and quickly said their goodnights before exiting the cabin. The moon had fully risen into the beautiful snow littered sky when only a few remained..
Rusty Oak, the dirty orange stallion who was all too eager for food when they reached the village, had started retelling several past experiences on the coast.
“I hope one of you brought a camera because this,” Rusty Oak slammed his hoof on the wooden table to gain everypony’s attention. “Is going to be the time it happens. I can feel it!”
“Is that so?” Asked Buckeye, busy working a toothpick around his incisors, trying to pick out bits of lentil and carrot caught in the gaps. “What’s happening?” He asked.
“It gets rough out there really quickly, but I can feel when it’s close. The one roughest, most powerful windstream is going to pass across the plain this year. Probably even tomorrow! And I’m going to ride it out no matter how far out it goes.”
“You’re going to get spat out and totally bashed if you fly too far, Rusty.” Said Parasol as she took her bowl over to the still warm cauldron in an attempt to scoop out the last bits of vegetables and broth. Rusty rolled his eyes and laughed.
“I’ve already smashed my head up against enough rocks by now to have learned how to take care of myself out there.” Rusty said. “When it comes to chaotic weather there isn’t much left that I haven’t experienced.” He smiled and leaned back. “I’ll be the one holding the record this year”
“Whatever you say, Rusty. I sure your wings don’t fall off in the frost!” It was Whirlpool, she stood up and glared at him as if she took his statement as a personal challenge. Rusty Oak leered at her from the corner of his eye.
“And what’s your problem, Whirligig?” Asked Rusty, already adopting Buckeye’s impromptu nickname much to her annoyance. He couldn’t help but grin, expecting the objection to come.
“The way you packed in all those beans I’m surprised your wings are even strong enough to lift you off the ground.” She teased. “ You know the kind of wind speed we’re dealing with here, right? Crazy, wild, untamed, and it only gets worse with each day."
“ Forget the camera, if I were you I’d make sure Aloes’ got everything he needs to fix the dents that’ll be in your head by the end of this.” Whirlpool tapped her hoof against her chest “ I’m the one who’s gonna break the wind tunnel record this year!”
Buckeye watched his friend’s pre-flight smack talk with interest until he noticed Fennel behind him next to the fire place. She was trying to lift the black pot off of the cooling embers but seemed to be having some trouble removing the chain. But apparently too reserved to ask for help. Or perhaps too stubborn.
“Woah, be careful with that!” Buckeye left the side of his two bickering friends and weaved through the benches to the fireplace. The pot was large and Fennel obviously wasn’t strong enough to lift its chain from the hook.
“Don’t mind them, let me help.” Buckeye said and fit his hoof into the groove handle, giving Fennel a much easier time of unhooking the pot and setting it down gently in the ashes. Buckeye leaned over the pot and whispered to the older mare. “I guess these two have a bit of a rivalry going on?”
The old green pegasus tittered. “You are new aren’t you? So you don’t know the half of it.” Fennel glanced over at the two other pegasi. “All of the youngsters have a loose competition going between them but those two are taking it seriously. They share second and third place on a rotation every other time we come up here.”
“Who has first place?” asked Buckeye.
“That would be old Snowy.”
“Snowy?” Buckeye didn’t recall anyone with that name. Then it dawned on him. “Oh! You mean Snowberry?
“Yeah, she is the one.”
Suddenly a harsh thump sound cracked through Buckeye’s senses. He looked back over at Rusty and Whirlpool, both still fighting.
The big orange stallion huffed. “I’ll be waiting for you inside the super cyclone if your wings are strong enough to get you within a mile of it!” Buckeye, Fennel, and Snowberry refocused on the two sporting pegasi at the tail end of their argument.
“Just try to remember which way is up and which is down.” teased Whirlpool, as she went for the door. Before exiting she glanced back with a smile and said, “Oh, and try not to get yourself frost bitten by any stray windigoes. I’ll see you all in the flow tomorrow.” and left.
“Huh, windigoes,right...” Parasol chewed on a carrot dismissively from the half full bowl of soup still waiting between her forehooves., the last of what there was in the pot. By now it was getting cold and she realized she didn’t want it any more. Yet it would be a shame to waste it. She examined the wooden ceiling beams while she peacefully chewed.
“You know, I spoke to Silvereed before we left. She was complaining about dreams again.” She said. This gained the attention of the remaining pegasi in the room. She didn’t know what they expected her to say so she shrugged. “She told me not to come up here.”
“Like she does every year?” Complained Rusty.
“At first I thought she was just complaining because of her aching joints. They always seem to put her in a bad mood. But this time she told me about the Windigoes. The old mare thinks some of them still live up here.”
“Oh that’s something I wouldn’t doubt at all.” It was Snowberry who spoke suddenly from the small side room she and Fennel were sharing. She’d stolen off to it after most of the others had went to sleep. Something had apparently stirred her enough to re emerge with a large brown book clutched to her chest.. She was greeted to a silent room and everyone’s eyes trained on her.
“Impossible, you mean they still exist?” Asked Buckeye, his voice hitched a little with unease. “I-I thought they were all banished!”
“I thought that--well I guess I can believe a few are still around, but would they really come this close to Equestria?” asked Parasol.
Snowberry placed the book down on a table and started flipping through its pages. “Well the claim is popular, that all of the windigoes fled this corner of the country years and years ago. But I have to wonder why they would leave. They were born here, weren’t they? Expecting the Windigoes to abandon the Frozen North is like asking a fish to leave the ocean.”
Buckeye felt his ears tilting back despite himself. “Doesn’t that make coming up here kind of...dangerous?”
“That’s why we stick to the Crystal Mountain range, kido.” answered Rusty Oak. “We’ve all heard the stories about how ponies forced the windigoes back into the wasteland. If those things really are still around what reason do they have to come up this close to the border? There are no ponies for hundreds of miles.”
Parasol grimaced. “Yeah, except for us.”
“Nah, we’re fine, honestly we are.” Said Rusty in a good effort to comfort his two younger companions. “We’re too close to the Crystal Empire for a Windigo to even want to show itself. Besides, they only appear when ponies don’t cooperate, you know how the story goes, right?”
“You sound like a foreigner from across the Appaloosa or something.” Buckeye said to the little lavender pony.”Didn’t you learn about Hearth’s Warming Eve in school?”
“Yes I know the story.” Parasol complained in a tone which seemed to say ‘Lay off, I’m not stupid alright! ’ But her brow crinkled lightly with worry. “Still Silvereed, that’s my grandma by the way, she told me that that story is just a fairytale, that it didn’t really happen that way.”
A few of the other pegasi rolled their eyes. Flustered, Parasol continued despite this. “She said that-well, strange weather patterns, odd stuff like this are usually signs that windigoes are nearby. It gets cold, even in places where it shouldn’t be.”
A brown maned yellow pegasus had been lounging near the back throughout the conversation, finally spoke up. “Last I checked we are up in the mountains, so I’m honestly not expecting to see palm trees!”
“Be quiet, Buoy!” Parasol huffed. “I meant the winds. The way they blow, feels ominous as if...” she trailed off for a minute, searching for better words. “Like the feeling you get when you know someone is watching you but you don’t know where they are. You can’t see them but they can see you, and it’s just waiting.”
“Your grandmother is kind of a mean for filling your head up with horror stories” replied Buoy airly, actually he was fighting to stifle a yawn. Parasol just shrugged.
“Aw it doesn’t matter though does it?” Asked Buckeye. He trotted over to his lavender friend and patted her comfortingly with her wing. “You know the story, we’re fine as long as we don’t start fighting like Rusty and his mad girlfriend.”
“Hey!” shouted Rusty. “We don’t fight all the time. Do we?” He made a face, mentally he already knew the answer.
Buckeye and Parasol shared a grin. “Windigo bait.” They both said.
“It takes more than a little argument to draw out a windigo.” Snowberry interrupted. “But it’s true, when we stop caring for others it makes the heart go cold. And that sure enough can bring them out to frost your windows if there is enough of that going on. But we don’t have anything to worry about. They’re witless and won’t come near if there is nothing for them to feed on. If anything our presence pushes them further away from this side of the mountain.”
Buckeye thought it over for a little and decided that what Snowberry said made sense. He and his friends were safe. And if there were any windigoes around they wouldn’t attack without reason. The moon had creeped up into the sky without him noticing, and so had his tiredness.
“Aw man, didn’t mean to stay up this long.” said Buckeye. He rubbed his bleary eyes as he felt the urge to sleep coming on. Having a good meal was finally taking effect, making him feel very drowsy. He got up from his place at the table and yawned again as he made his way to the cabin’s front door.
“Heh, I won’t be any good out there without sleep. See you guys tomorrow.”
Over the next few days the small group of pegasi left the little mountain village to fly over the peaks of the crystal mountains and and ride the wind streams over the valley, as far out as they dared, since it was basically right on the edge of Equestria’s northern border, pegasus magic had less and less of an effect on wind and cloud. Buckeye preferred to wear thick goggles to help him see through the snowy altitudes. He never wanted to admit to anyone but ever since that night where he’d heard that ghost story, if one could actually call it that, Buckeye would sometimes feel a slight twinge of uneasiness when he lingered along the jutting walls waiting for the weather to reach the correct conditions for flying. It was a feeling he couldn’t fully explain, even to himself. Sometimes in the quiet mornings he would listen to the wind howling through the mountain pass and he imagined that was how an angry windigo must sound.
‘But they can’t hurt us. We’re safe here’ , he thought to himself. Even if a windigo were stalking, all it could do is give him a bad chill. He knew it couldn’t hurt him.
“Yo, Buckeye, do you see any monsters down there?”
It was a new day. Buckeye and Whirlpool were practically floating somewhere not far from the peaks, miles above the rushing white snow below them. They were waiting for the wind to gain speed and guide them to the center of the storm.
“No, Whirlpool I don’t see any monsters. Hey give me some wing room will ya? Another gust is coming up!” The mare nodded and pulled away, dropping in altitude. Buckeye’s wing feathers tickled slightly, giving him warning that the air currents were changing and heading his way. It wouldn’t be a good idea for the two pegasi to be so close when it hit. He felt the rush of cold air coil around his body, weaving between his legs and adding lift power to his wings.
He rose high and cleared the peaks that towered over their camp, looking down below into the valley he was greeted to the sight of the wide wintry landscape of the Frozen North. The sea of snow glittered under the reflected light of the sun and sky and ground seemed to meld together in the horizon, far across the wastes and back down into the badlands, whatever that might look like. But Buckeye knew it was a place no sane pony would be likely to ever find himself.
He looked around and saw many of his friends spread out, waiting for the clouds to gather on their own. It wouldn't take too long but they had found out that the best results came with patience and it was more than a hassle to get the darker clouds to cooperate with them anyway.
Soon enough, on its own time, dark clouds began to collect above the valley, and the sky darkened, obscuring the sun. Buckeye saw Snowberry fly up and land onto one of the agitated dark clouds, she was soon followed by Rusty Oak and several others. The cloud on which they had gathered seemed to work as a central nucleus for the rest of the clouds to attract and wrap around. He flew up and immediately felt the pressure of the atmosphere prickle against his coat and make his spine tingle, then it began.
“There it is, can you see it?” Parasol looked down as the air started to churn and twirl creating a cyclone effect. This was an unnatural occurrence due to the fact that tornados needed both hot and cold in order to form. But the Cyclone Coast, original home of the windigo, wasn’t a place that strictly adhered to any rules of nature.
“It’s coming to meet us, get ready.” said Snowberry, and everyone could feel her anticipation fusing in with their own. One of them took the plunge early and the others lost sight of her in the spinning void, moments later the force came upon them as they were swallowed into the tornado’s middle. Buoy laughed like mad before tripping over his own forehoof and somersaulting down, then they all jumped just as the clouds they were standing were obliterated in the gale.
“Geronimo!” Buckeye shouted excitedly and took the plunge, losing sight of everything immediately but the swiftly turning mass of wind and snow. He flew into the rotation and spread his wings. The young pegasus couldn’t believe it, after months of waiting he was finally flying in the center of a wild cyclone. His friends back in Cloudsdale would hear of this and tremble.
Lost in the tumult of emotion and adrenaline he almost didn’t see the object plummeting towards him til it was too late. It was as big as him if not slightly bigger. It fell like a stone and clipped his shoulder. Startled and pained, Buckeye spiraled. On instinct, he managed to correct himself in the air just in time to catch a look at what had struck him before it disappeared in the dark lower part of the cyclone.
“What in the world was that?” he said to himself as the grey object, it had to have been a chunk of rock dislodged from the mountain side, vanished in the storm. But then a second later the pegasus realized how impossible that ways. The cyclone sat in the center of the low valley with the walls sitting a little over two miles away on either side.
It was a weird shape too, for a moment as he watched it he could have sworn it looked just like a pegasus. The next moment Buckeye felt something wrap around his middle, stopping him mid flight even in the midst of the pulling wind. He coughed out a half formed cry of surprise as he was pulled away from the inside edge and towards the center of the twister. His goggles fell away from his face and in a matter of seconds he had no idea where he was, left, right, up or down. It was like a wire so cold that it felt hot, was coiling around him till he couldn’t move, not even to flap his wings. The wind was suddenly terrifying and loud, so loud he couldn’t even hear his own cries for help. What had him now, felt like claws as cold as ice.
A Storm over Appleloosa
“Hm, the birds are flying awfully low today.”
Sheriff Silverstar was gazing at the clouds as he often did while taking routine walks about the little town of Appleloosa. It was still quite early in the morning, so early in fact that the sun hadn’t begun to rise. But its red hints could be seen peeking out over the eastern horizon. Making the clouds glow red. But this wasn’t a leisure stroll. The sheriff and a small contingent headed out of town just before dawn, pulling wood laden wagons towards the towns only wheat farm which sat out roughly ten miles from their train station.
“You know, it sure was nice of the Buffalo tribe to tell us about this ole water hole over yonder.” said Braeburn as he pulled himself up to the front of the little caravan to keep pace with his superior.
“I mean, we used up most of our prime growing land to the orchards and for a while I thought the rest of our food would need to be brought in by rail.”
“You’re right.” said Silverstar with a nod. “Those Buffalo have been mighty kind to us since we’ve arrived here. I’m still trying to think up a way to repay them.” After the initial incident regarding the apple trees and the stampeding grounds was settled, the two sides kept to their own for several months. Then Little Strongheart took it upon herself to help the pony settlers by taking them out into the wilderness to find a good place to build a bigger farm. There was a river to the west but it was too far away, but as luck would have it a natural underground water source was closer.
“You should be able to grow plenty of food here.” She had said when they located the well. The ponies were ecstatic and she was pleased to have brought them good fortune. Now the crops were growing fine and soon it would be harvest time. A little more hammering on the grain silo was the only thing standing in their way.
“Alright folks let’s get a move on finishing this tower before the day warms up! If we work hard we can get all of the grain inside before evening.” Silverstar and the farmer delegated the work between adding the last side to the grain silo and gathering the wheat in the fields. The work went smoothly and just as Silverstar predicted everything was finished by evening. But unlike what he had predicted, the day was nowhere near as warm as it usually would be by this time.
“What’s botherin you, sheriff?” asked a shale grey pony with drooping bangs had been picking up on the sheriff’s mood since they reached the farm.
“It’s nothing but...” Silverstar sniffed and rubbed his snout with his hoof. “It looks like rain.”
“Rain?” The other pony sniffed the air but couldn’t pick up on anything but tilled dirt, wood, and wheat. The smells he’d grown so used to as he grew up in the little town. “Sorry sir but I don’t smell nothin. And the sky looks plenty clear to me. Not an angry cloud in the sky.”
“It’s not anything I can see actually, Spur. Just my knees. They’re starting to feel achy. Always do when rain is on the way.”
“Or maybe its just a sign of your age!” said Braeburn coming from around a small barn, expressing his habit of tilting an ear into somepony else's conversation.
The older pony leered purposefully down at him.. “Braeburn...” The leer caused the yellow pony to falter and chuckle slightly. “Right, uh,” he scuttled away to pick up a hammer. “Back to work!”
Spur watched him leave, briefly puzzled. “But the work is already fin-uh, know what, nevermind.”
A few minutes later after the farmer pony took time to inspect the grain storage space and deemed it complete, everyone whooped and ye-hawed in celebration.
“Time to pack her in, fellas!” said a pony named Ironstone as he re-hitched himself to the much lighter cart. “Get back home just in time for supper!” They crossed the plain, relaxed by the breeze. It was the middle of summer yet any one of them could have sworn they were skipping through a pleasant breezy autumn spell. With luck the whole day would be like this.
“ A lots getting done. The apple harvestin is probably well over halfway before we get back.” stated Braeburn. “So it’s a good thing it didn’t rain.” His mood was bright and everyone agreed but the sheriff pony could only sigh. He was pulling a cart too despite the prevalent pain in his knee. He could ignore it for now since the cart had no weight.
“You may call me crazy but my knee never lies. Rains gotta be on its way, mark my words.”
“Oh my head...”
“Are you still not able to rest, little one?”
“No, my head is throbbing since yesterday! Sleep is impossible.”
Little Strongheart lay still on the ground in the quiet dark of the pointed teepee. with half lidded eyes full of tiredness. For the past two days a mysterious headache had plagued her to the point that it barred her even from sleep. And the one time she did nod off a bad dream kicked her back into the waking world like she was an unwanted intruder. It was the middle of the day and the herd had decided to plant itself someplace far west of the Appleloosian mountains and Macintosh Hills. Just a little north of the Palomino Desert. The young buffalo could get something fresh to drink from the nearby river if she needed to. Unfortunately for Chief Thunderhooves and worry of one of the tribe’s caretakers, Wigwam, Strongheart didn’t want to go near it.
“I don’t want to go near the river, it reminds me too much of my dream.” she pleaded.
“Tell us about this dream you had.” Thunderhooves insisted. Strongheart nodded and told them what she could remember. It was pretty brief.
“Well, my friends and I were playing in a large river, there was no danger and it was a clear day. I saw a pretty stone near the bottom and dove for it and when I came back up the sky was covered in dark clouds. I didn’t understand how they could have appeared so suddenly. Then the clouds parted and from them showed a face. It was...white. Just white but I could see the eyes and mouth well.” Strongheart squinted and fidgeted a little. “It was a great sky god, just like the ones grandmother talked about in her stories. It was looking right at me, and it smiled. But it wasn’t a...kind smile.”
The adults glanced discreetly at each other. They knew exactly what stories the child was talking about but it was too early to point a hoof at any real conclusion.
“Please continue.” Wigwam urged.
“I was frightened by this sky god but I couldn’t get out of the river in time. It brought its hand down, all the way down and touched me on my forehead with a long cold f-finger.” She shuddered harshly as if she were experiencing the shock of being dumped in a barrel of ice water. Wigwam reached a hoof around to console her but it was only a brief reaction.
“When it touched me I just froze up and I sank to the bottom of river. Something about me felt strange but I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t even look at my legs because my head was stuck as it was, looking upward toward the sky.”
“And...and then.” Strongheart stammered.
“Yes, go on.” Thunderhooves urged her, hoping that explaining the dream would help her go to sleep.
“And then the river froze over. The ice was so thick that it blotted out the light and I couldn’t see the sky or what had happened to my friends.” The little buffalo was trying to stay firm but it was clear from her wavering voice that retelling this dream had a bad effect. “And I was trapped under the water forever.”
“Everything is okay, little one. It was only a dream. I’ve heard stories about this creature you spoke of and I know that it is in a place where it can do you no harm.” said Wigwam. The old buffalo just wanted to bring comfort. “I’ll make medicine for you to take. A stronger dose should put you right to sleep.”
Little Strongheart grimaced. “Blagh! That stuff tastes like its made from toad slime!” Then she sighed. “Wish I was in Appleloosa right now. Know what they say, an apple a day...”
Wigwam couldn’t help but smile sympathetically, she knew it wasn’t just the taste of the medicine that bothered the little buffalo, she was also missing a few new friends she had made back at the pony settlement.
“When we stampede back that way I’ll make sure to look into apple flavored medicine.” Little Strongheart seemed cheered by the sentiment. Before the medicine buffalo could give her the foul tasting stuff, another buffalo rushed into the tent looking urgently at Chief Thunderhooves.
“Chief, you need to come out and see this. Its the sky! The sky is going completely dark!”
“What?” they all rushed out of the tent to see everything around them covered by shadow. Immediately they looked up to see the clouds swirling, still light on the out edge leading into dark blue and gray and finally black at its center. The clouds rolled and seemed to boil as if spewing from the nostrils of a great dragon.
“The sky was perfectly clear just minutes ago.”
“What’s happening?”
“Those clouds look really nasty.”
The chief squinted his eyes as the wind picked up, throwing dust and sand in in his face. He needed to think fast and get his people away from this unnatural storm before it was too late. He wasn’t even sure what it was but it clearly wasn’t benevolent. The obvious answer was to run, the next question was run where? In the middle of airy dry scrubland there was no place to hide.
“Chief!” Little Strongheart was shouting now, she had to over the whipping winds that were now creating a dust storm.
“Chief, we have to go east! The ponies are in danger!”
For a moment, the Appleloosa settlers crossed the chief’s mind. They were not his first priority but he quickly realized that east was probably their best bet to escape whatever this mysterious storm was about to unleash. The Macintosh Hills had caves deep enough to shelter his tribe and the settler ponies if the situation called for it, and they sat on high ground if they needed to escape a flood. A thread of lightning flashed across the sky followed closely by low rumbling lightning. East it was, there was no time to think otherwise.
“What did you say? Appleloosa is what?”
“You mean you didn’t hear about it?.” Thunderlane asked while touching down on the fluffy white cloud next to Rainbow Dash. It was a clear day over ponyville with not many clouds in the sky, making the day seem hotter than usual. But clouds were always cool to the touch so a sweltering pegasus who wanted to escape the heat could always nest herself inside of one and be comfortable for an entire afternoon.
“Where were you when the report came out? It was just this morning.”
Rainbow Dash had been escaping the heat and didn’t feel like explaining herself. “Uh, someone’s cat got stuck in a tree and asked me to get it out.”
“You were asleep again weren’t you.”
“It’s none of your business what I was doing, Thunderlane.” her stare was of ice. When he did not pursue the argument she continued her inquiry. “Anyway what did this report say about Appleloosa getting flooded?”
“Appleloosa isn’t the only place. Manehattan got 10 feet of snow and Baltimare’s got a fog so thick, everyone is literally trapped inside their houses. It’s insane, we’re in the middle of summer!”
“What about the ponies who lived there? Did they get out okay?” she asked.
Thunderlane nodded. “Yeah looks like they all made it out just before the storm broke. Apparently a herd of buffalo saw it first and hauled tail back to warn them. They all took shelter in the hills. Lucky for them, the water didn’t rise that far.”
Rainbow Dash internally breathed a sigh of relief.
“Well something’s definitely up. Maybe a new recruit is tripping up big time in the weather factory.” she said.
“I couldn’t be so bad as to cause this much trouble.” Thunderlane replied. It was true that mistakes could be made, the occasional stray lightning bolt or a getaway raincloud dumping water on a poor pony’s parade. But nothing to this degree was possible. Making enough weather for all of Equstria was a structured and systematic business with enough fail safes to keep mess ups like this to an absolute minimum.
“The higher ups say this isn’t an inside mistake, something else is causing this.”
Dash frowned. “Well that can’t be good. But we’re the ones who have to get to the bottom of this.”
Thunderlane smirked and lifted off the ground. “Sure thing. It’s a good thing I found you, otherwise you might have missed the meeting. Lets go!”
They made it to the Cloudsdale town hall, a massive white building made of cloud and column, just as the pony in the center of the crowd finished ordering everyone to be quiet and listen to what she had to say. Thunderlane landed along the outside edge of the crowd but Rainbow Dash soared overhead, landing at the front. Spitfire seemed to be the one dealing out orders.
“Alright everypony listen up! I’m gonna be brief because we haven’t a lot of time to waste.” When the murmuring finished, Spitfire began.
“Forty-eight hours ago we received our first distress message from Dodge Junction. We sent a response party, but by the time they arrived the entire town had been flooded up the the roof tops. Fortunately, everyone had successfully evacuated to nearby caves. Not even an hour after the response team escorted them to the nearest town did we start to get distress messages from all over Equestria.”
Small ripples of talk floated to the surface among the pegasi. It couldn’t be helped.
“I was going to Manehattan to visit my mother but I got a telegram from her just yesterday. She says the snow is so high ponies have to leave home through the attic.”
“It’s so hard to see in Baltimare, it’s like you can’t even see your hooves on the sidewalk.”
“It’s worse than that, It’s like trying to walk around with clouds on the ground. Works up here just fine, but not down there.”
“All the shops are going to close down.”
“And the schools?”
“This mess going to reach Ponyville?”
“Order!” Spitfire’s tone was so commanding that the silence was immediate.
“This is no time to lose focus! The princesses have already been notified of these instances and have lent the services of the royal guard, but that isn’t enough. As pegasi and residence of Cloudsdale, weather is our business. So it is our job to investigate this issue and get to the bottom of it. Stay if you want to volunteer. We’ll need plenty not only to help out in places where there has been extensive damage but also to find the source of these occurrences.
“We’ll put you into teams with instructions on where to go. You go investigate, then fly back and report your findings. Just don’t stray too close to anything dangerous. When you’ve returned, the guard and the Wonderbolts will handle the rest.”
As it turned out there were more than enough volunteers eager to provide damage control across Equestria and take expeditions out to locations where these strange weather phenomenon occurred. For expeditions the groups naturally were smaller. Rainbow Dash volunteered for the later category immediately out of curiosity and her natural sense of adventure. When the crowd dispersed, Spitfire looked over expectantly. "Ah, Rainbow Dash! Just the mare I was hoping to see!"
“Hey Thunderlane it looks like we’ll be heading out together. And you too, Cloudchaser!” Rainbow Dash was pleased to know she would be flying out with two ponies from the Wonderbolt academy. They all knew the ins and outs of each other’s flying ability fairly well. And she knew their limits. She wouldn't have to worry about tiring them out on the way to their destination.
“And you’ve got quite a trip ahead of you. The Cyrstal Mountains. Train is an option or you can fly straight there. I’m sure Rainbow Dash would prefer the later option.” said Spitfire while handing the three pegasi saddle bags of supplies. They weren’t heavy laden for survival purposes as that would obviously make flying more difficult, but one could never be certain and it was always best to be prepared. Dash turned to her two flight companions.
“I’ll leave it to you two to decide. I don’t care either way how we get there as long as we get there.”
“Oh how nice, the great Rainbow Dash is considering our feelings, Thunder.” she said with a kidding eye roll.
“Hey we’re in the academy just like you, don’t worry about us,we can keep pace.” Said Thunderlane before flinching and adding timorously, ”As long as you don’t plan on flying at mach three or something.”
Rainbow Dash knocked Thunderlane’s shoulder playfully with her hoof before galloping to the take off lane.
“Don’t worry about me flying too fast, you know mach two is my limit except in emergencies!”
“In that case I’d rather take the scenic route!”
Before Dash could reach the end of the platform and fly away, Spitfire came in front of them quick as a flash, stopping the trio of pegasi short. The look on her face was clear, what she said next would be serious.
“If you spot anything strange, keep your team out of any trouble if you can help it. Remember this, Rainbow Dash, I gave you that badge for a reason. And as it turns out all three of you made the top marks in training last month.” Thunderlane and Cloudchaser were grinning, they were never complimented while at the academy, especially from ‘the’ Captain Spitfire herself. It was something of which to feel pride.
“Attention cadets!” Spitfire dropped the pretense and her students fell in line, faces stern and stiff, as their instructor paced purposefully back and forth.
“I’m going to consider this your first official mission for the Wonderbolts. As you are aware these anomalies are serious business. So far there have been no casualties or seriously injured but that train of luck can only roll along so far. It’s up to us pegasi to get to the bottom of this before these apparently random incidents take a much more nefarious turn.” She paused a moment before resuming.
“I’m sure you all heard about what happened to Appaloosa.” Indeed they had, and it had already sunk into everyone the gravity of the situation. The very fact that Spitfire had said ‘what happened to’ instead of something more benign like ‘what happened in’ Appaloosa was enough to send chills. In its current state, one could argue the little tumbleweed town no longer existed.
“Well we can’t afford to let that happen again! Do you understand me, cadets?”
“Yes Sir!”
“Then do me proud, get out there and be the best scouts you can be! For the good of Equestria!”
“Sir,Yes Sir!” And with a strong sturdy salute the three pegasi disappeared into the clouds at speed, flying towards the Crystal Empire.
It was approximately a three day trip to the empire. From there they would meet a guide who would take them up the mountain. At this time of year the pathway was generally harmless despite a few harmless snow flurries. What mattered more was avoiding the cold which was why the guide pony would have to lead them through a network of meticulously dug tunnels to reach the peak.
In the name of good sense, the trio of ponies eventually decided to travel by train but by the end of the second day they began to feel cramped, and unboarded at the only checkpoint between Ponyville and their destination, enjoying the fair summer weather in the air, making sport of keeping pace with the train for the rest of their journey.
“You know it feels pretty nice right now. It almost makes me forget about all of these weird weather situations.” said Cloudchaser lightly as she glided listlessly several hundred feet above the chugging train.
“It’d be hard to believe if not for all the distress telegrams, everything feels fine in Ponyville. Maybe a little hotter than usual but thats just because there are less clouds out today, I bet.” replied Thunderlane as he fell in level with his sister.
“I told you Rumble had a dream about snowballs the other day didn’t I? “
“Uh oh, did he?”
“Yep! Just like last year, and the year before that, both were pretty hot summers, but this one can’t be much worse.”
“Yeah,” replied Cloudchaser “Maybe Ponyville won’t be affected by all of this weird stuff.”
By that time Rainbow Dash had slowed down a little, just enough to hear the last bits of the conversation, curious, she drifted in close. “What are you guys talking about?”
“Nothing much, basically what everypony is trying to figure out, where we’re going especially.” said Thunderlane.
Dash thought for a moment. “Are you talking about those disappearances from two weeks ago?” News had reached Cloudsdale and the local papers mere days ago. Fifteen Pegasi had traveled up into mountains for thrills, but only two came back down, hurt, weary, and delirious. They were still in the hospital, a little battered but otherwise safe and stable. Unfortunately when authorities asked for details on the whereabouts of their friends, the two frost whipped pegasi couldn’t give any useful information. It had all been a blur to them.
“Maybe whatever happened up there has something to do with what’s going on now.” said Thunderlane.
“Just two weeks ago a bunch of ponies go missing and now a weird string of weather related incidents start popping up before anyone can even look and see what might have happened? Suspicious.”
“It’s a coincidence.” stated Rainbow Dash.
Cloudchaser performed a quick twirl in the air. “Not if it was a windigo.” Rainbow Dash looked at the other mare crossly.
“Are you serious?”
“Hey anything could live up in those mountains! And if you ask me it’s ridiculous that they were up there in the first place.”
“Windigoes couldn’t cause all of this trouble.” Rainbow Dash said with an air of finality. “But hopefully we’ll learn something useful when we get there.”
They made it to the crystal kingdom in good time, the train pulled into the station at seven o’clock that afternoon. Rainbow Dash and her friends flew in two hours prior.
“Well here we are!” Dash brought up her hoof up across their view as if presenting a magnificent treasure. “The Crystal Empire!”
Cloudchaser actually had to blink a few times. This place was no Ponyville, she’d give it that. Not that there was anything wrong but she was used to wood, hay, grass and dirt. This place sparkled, she realized, from at least a mile out and now everywhere she looked a piece of wall or a bit of the very street they walked on seemed to glitter or sparkle just out of the corner of her eye. All of the buildings looked like they were cut out of giant shimmering precious stone though they were opaque not translucent, everything had a faint glow as if a soft light were being allowed to pass through.
“Wow, everything sure is...shiny!” she said, still blinking to adjust her senses.
“Yeah, the shinier the better. I think they take pride in that.” replied Dash as she lead them down the main thoroughfare. She knew from past visits that they hadn’t landed far from a shopping district.
“Anyway lets get going, we gotta meet our guide at the library, don’t want to keep her waiting!”
“Waiting...two hours ahead of schedule?” asked Thunderlane. Rainbow Dash checked mid step and laughed at her mistake.
“Oh, heh, right. Well uh, how about I give you guys a tour?”
She was tall. With spindly legs and wind swept hair. Her mane and coat were as gray as an angry storm cloud with eyes that instead seemed to reflect the cool blue of a cloudy afternoon. Unconsciously Rainbow Dash possessed a habit of judging other ponies based on her first impression of their physical status and apparent capability. To her, the pony didn’t look like the type who could climb a ladder under her own power let alone up a mountain pass. But the vest she wore was indeed issued from Cloudsdale, showing that she was the one to take them up into the Crystal Mountains, and in retrospect who was she to judge? For all she knew this pony could actually be an expert veteran at outdoor survival.
“Hi My name is Breezy Shell, and you must be Rainbow Dash?”
Climate Change
It was never disclosed one way or another whether Breezy Shell was an expert of the outdoors but it was quickly apparent to Rainbow Dash that despite her frail frame, looking as if a good strong wind could easily send her tumbling, the pegasus seemed to have no trouble navigating the tunnels, that seemed to twist continuously and vertical. Breezy was a pony of few words but energetic and spry.The few times she did speak, her questions were strange. Not in a disconcerting way but oddly specific as if groping for a particular answer that would satisfy the guide.
“Miss Rainbow Dash, I have to ask you a question! Sorry, do I seem to forward, that was too forward, was I?”
“No you're fine, I just go by Dash really.” said Rainbow Dash. She felt a little amused by the pony’s stammering. The poor thing had almost tripped when her hoof hit a small dip in the path but she took it in stride and kept going, actually turning to walk backwards to face them in the tunnel.
“Okay, Miss Dash, if that’s alright with you. Are.... you a real element of harmony?”
“Hm?” Cloudchaser’s singular comment. Even she seemed to pick up on the oddness.
“Uh, well...heh.” Saying it was out of left field would be generous and at that moment she wasn’t prepared to explain. “Yeah, I guess you could say that... but not literally, more like I'm a bearer of it.”
“I see.” Breezy Shell said while shifting her back hooves over a few uneven areas in the path she couldn’t see, she didn’t turn back around as she still had a question to ask.
“What about the others? Do you know about them? Where they are?”
Where were the usual questions? The normal predictable ones. Questions about how fast she could fly, if she could actually dodge lightning or how many times she could perform her sonic rainboom in the span of a day.The sudden forwardness on the topic of her duty as a bearer of an element took Dash off guard. Though it wasn’t wasn't a secret at all, the subject was usually saved just for her friends and the princesses. She glanced around the walls of the tunnel, etched in shadow broken up periodically every few feet by torch light. She could feel her voice rise and envelope them in an echo, multiplying the puzzlement in her tone.
“They’re... around.” Dash’s response was brief, looking at Breezy Shell she didn’t seem to be the kind who’d be interested in the elements of harmony, though she knew most ponies had to at least recognize her, by now, by name if not sight. ‘Maybe she really is a fan. Just a weird one.’
When they finally reached the tunnel exit it opened into darkness. Dash realized that the tunnels were pretty much the only way a pony could make it to the top of the mountain as its straight vertical sides made traveling along on the outer edge impossible. And for most pegasi trying to fly straight up for so many miles would tire them before they could even make it half way.
The harrying winds blasting snow down the steep sides wouldn’t do them any favors. Any pass leading up the mountain from the outside was thoroughly snowed in year round.
“We are here. There’s not much to see, but this is where we started seeing signs first.” said Breezy almost nonchalantly.
“Wow this is it?” asked Cloudchaser tentatively, literally high stepping through the deep piles of snow in order to reach the pale little village trapped between the looming walls ahead of them. It was dark and foreboding, but something told her she didn’t want to fly in this weather.
“Just over the hill and we’ll be there!” Breezy Shell cantered off into the falling snow and dark night with no trouble, her form blended in perfectly with the stone and snow to the point that the others nearly lost sight of her.
“Hey, wait up!” Dash called out and pulled her hooves out of the deep snow, she took flight and sailed over the hill towards the dark.
“Don’t leave us behind! Ugh, some guide she turned out to be...” muttered Cloudchaser
Thunderlane came up beside her and chuckled, “Eh, come on, there’s no point in trying to walk through this anyway.”
Soon they were both flying through the air after their companions. When they reached the wooden gates, Dash wasn’t surprised to see a few dim lights flickering in several of the wooden cabins. Canterlot guards had made camp days before, apparently stationed earlier to secure the area as they searched and waited for another anomaly to hit.
Briefly Rainbow Dash glanced upwards, not sure what she would see up in the dark sky and the high slabs of rock which seemed to claw into it.. An odd feeling washed over the pony, like she had expected to see something up there. She wasn’t disappointed, but puzzled; If there were ponies at camp they wouldn’t all be huddled inside the cabins, some would be patrolling and she would see them in the air. Breezy stopped just at the top of the hill.
“Oh, visitors!” Breezy sounded surprised, and this in turn surprised Dash.
“Say what?” But before Rainbow Dash could say more the gray pony was pushing through the snow, she seemed to almost glide in it, Dash thought. Through the gates she went without turning around but it didn’t matter now, Thunderlane and Chaser weren’t far behind.
“She is pretty weird, isn’t she,” Thunderlane whispered to the blue pegasus as he flew over the hill.
“Yeah well, she got us where we needed to be, so let’s just get a move on.”
The little outpost was dark and quiet, besides the slight illumination by candle light peaking through some of the windows, the place was the definitive picture of abandoned. Snow crusted every roof and frost covered each window. Dash noticed hoof prints in the snow, though they were few. She could tell there was a path underhoof but she figured there really wasn’t much need to shovel it clear. No chimney smoke either, now that was weird. What pony would want to be up here shivering? She chose one of the cabins from which she could see candle light and decided to make her presence known.
“Hey, we’re here!” she pushed the door open and stepped inside of the dimly glowing light of the cabin, at first seeing no one. “Hello? Is anyone in here?” In fact there was but it took a little while for Dash’s eyes to adjust in the low light. Her eyes swept the room and met the candle, the pony next to it gave nary a glance in her direction. A powder blue pegasus with light pink hair was hedged into a corner of the cabin next to a pair of candles. Her nose was hovering over the pages of a book but from a distance it was impossible for Dash to tell what. She stepped closer and saw various items on the floor, surrounded the pegasus. Binoculars, jackets, pens and quills, candy bars. Small books were stacked to a side and what even looked like a comic book or two. Did all of it belong to this one pony?
Dash took another step but the other pony still hadn’t noticed her standing only a few feet away.
“Ahem...Uh, hi?” she said, “Are you with the search team?” Not sure how to address this stranger, Dash grimaced when she didn’t get a response. “Uh, hello?” Still nothing.. “Earth to four eyes!” she nudged the pinky pony’s shoulder, finally shocking the mare into attention.
“Uh, oh!” the other mare paused for a moment giving Rainbow Dash a hard glance over the thin rims of her eyeglasses. Dash stayed quiet as the other pony examined her. Once she was satisfied she smiled and introduced herself.
“Greetings! You’ll have to excuse me, I didn’t mean to ignore your entrance. My name is Wind Whistler, researcher. And you are?”
“Rainbow Dash is the name! But you can just call me Dash!” Rainbow Dash said, tapping her chest with a hoof. After a moment her smile faltered. “And I’ve got a question to ask.” Dash glanced around the featureless and notably empty cabin before asking, “Where is everyone?”
Wind Whistler was silent for a moment. Her eyes caught the special vest Dash was wearing, the patch showing the seal of Cloudsdale; she was here on business. Wind Whistler hesitantly glanced down at the open book but Dash could see in her eyes that she was searching for an answer.
“There is another pony here actually.... well, we’re not here on any official business.” she said.
“Then what are you here for?”
Just then, another pony came into the cabin through the only door; he was larger than both of them, and had several bags around his neck and a lantern in his mouth. The light was dim and it was hard to make out much of him in the darker part of the room. But before Rainbow Dash could fully process the brown fur and the cap of straw blonde mane, the new arrival wrestled the bags off of his neck and onto the ground and set the lantern on a small bed pushed against the wall. Then he started to speak without looking up.
“Yo, Whistler, didn’t find much but I remember the cabins on the west side are locked, so I’m gonna go back and...” When the pony looked up the first thing he saw was Dash, and it was at that moment Dash’s mind could finally comprehend who she was seeing.
“Rainbow Dash?”
Dash’s wings flared in astonishment..
“Dumbbell?”
“What are you doing here?” They both demanded at once before immediately launching into their individual defenses.
“None of your business, Rainbow!”
“Well I’m here on behalf of Cloudsdale so yeah it kinda is my business! We came all the way up to the frozen north because of all the weird weather stuff going on, and trust me when I say I did not expect to see YOU here!”
Dumbbell scowled. “So the higher ups dropped you here. Huh, can’t see what they could expect out of you.”
“More than you’ll ever know, and none of that concerns you.”
“There is no reason to be antagonizing, Dumbbell.” said Wind Whistler and she stood next to Rainbow Dash. “She has a perfectly good reason to inquire about our presence.”
“Speaking of,” Dash looked between the both of them expectantly. “Where the heck are the royal guards? They were supposed to be here!”
“Royal guards? From Canterlot you mean?” asked Wind Whistler.
“Well duh,” insisted Rainbow Dash. “What other royal guards are there?”. She somehow suppressed an eye roll.
“There aren’t any.” stated Dumbbell. “We were the only two ponies up here till you showed up.”
“And how long have you been here?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Only a day. We couldn’t be here before that, the path was blocked.” The end of Dumbbell’s sentence was almost lost under the sound of hooves clammering on the ice slick stone steps, pushing open the door and stumbling inside. It was Thunderlane and Cloudchaser who had managed to spot their silhouettes in the window and barged in, almost hitting Dumbbell with the door in the process.
“Hey! Watch it will ya?” exclaimed Dumbbell. He hiked up his fear leg, though, resisting the reflex to kick back against the door.
“Geeze, there you are Rainbow-hey, Dumbbell!” Thunderlane paused taking in everyone in the cramped cabin before looking back at the brown pegasus again. “What are you doing here?”
Dumbbell sighed, putting his rear hoof down. “So this is what you meant by ‘we’.” he said to Rainbow Dash. She confirmed with a nod before bringing the most prevalent question back to the forefront. “I’ve asked, now Thunders’ asking, so I’ll ask again. What are you doing way up here in the Crystal mountains, in this camp?”
Dumbbell cocked a smile. “Would you believe, I’ve taken up a sudden interest in treasure hunting?”
“Be serious.” Dash growled.
“I am, got a treasure map stuffed into one of these bags here.” Dumbbell insisted pointing at the cluster of bags tossed onto the bed.
“Ugh!”
“Say, about that.” Cloudchaser gently pushed her way over to the bed, which was actually hard to do, the cabin was really small. “Look at this stuff. Isn’t this outpost the same place all those crazy thrill seekers were before they vanished?”
“They’re called storm chasers.” Dumbbell insisted on the correct name.
“Whatever, if the guards aren’t there, and they aren’t here, me and Thunder have been all over this place by now...These supplies belonged to the ponies who went missing five months ago!”
The unease began to settle. As if the small group of ponies were caught in something forbidden like witnessing a grave robbery.
“What are you two up to?” Rainbow Dash was about to turn on Dumbbell again but the stallion cut her off before she could, this time with honesty.
“I came here to bring their supplies back to their families.” he said. The sudden forwardness took Dash by surprise. She leapt off of her offensive front, took a step backwards and glanced at the floor.
“I thought this had all been taken care of.” she said.
“The only safe passage to the outpost has been blocked this whole time. Nopony has been able to come here to reclaim their belongings.” said Wind Whistler. “Not until just a few days ago.”
“Royal guards or not, I didn’t want to just wait.” said Dumbbell stubbornly. Rainbow Dash surmised then, that the missing ponies must have been his friends, and considering the fact that the mystery of their disappearance had remained unsolved, he and anyone who knew them must have been emotionally wasted. When the only safe path up the mountain became unblocked, he’d obviously jumped at the chance.
“Sorry to hear about that, then.” Dash’s apology was muted yet sincere, and the tense atmosphere subsided.
“Yeah, no big deal.” Dumbbell looked down, Rainbow Dash caught sight of his knit brows and something else etched under his eyes that told of a deeper disquiet, but she put her curiosity aside. Now wasn’t the time anyway.
“If you two are here then the situation here can’t be all that bad.” Dash said. “You guys haven’t noticed anything weird going on up here have you?”
“Nothing up here but snow and wind.” Dumbbell answered calmly.
“From what I heard the sky went completely dark over the mountain the day those ponies disappeared. said Cloudchaser as she peaked tentatively out of a frosted window. “Maybe we shouldn’t stay here long.”
“Perhaps she’s right.” said Wind Whistler. “Dumbbell and myself traveled here at our own risk. But if you were intended to meet someone here for protection, it could be within your best interest to return at a better time.”
“If you two can stay a day up here on your own then so can we! No way we’re gonna leave this place with nothing to report back.” said Dash.
“It would be safer to simply return to the Crystal palace-.”
“No way! We’ve got beds, right? We can just stick it out here til morning. The Canterlot guards will definitely be here by then.” Dash noticed Wind Whistler’s lingering look of doubt which irritated her. “You got something to hide?”
The accusation took the other pony surprise, making her face stretch in a way that her glasses nearly fell off the bridge of her nose. She caught them and stammered an apology as she readjusted the spectacles.
“No, no it’s nothing like that, please excuse any misgivings.”
At this point, Dumbbell returned to the door, stepping back out into the frosty night to resume his exploration of the little outpost. “Hey, do whatever you want, no ones gonna stop you, Dash. I’ll be out of here by tomorrow morning before another freaky storm comes.”
“Too late for that, sorry.”
“What? Who said that?” Dumbbell was a little more than half way over the threshold when another voice reached him from somewhere in the snow beyond.
“Who’s out there?” he squinted his eyes, just barely able to see the form of a pony standing alone in the snow between the cabins. The figure stepped closer, revealing itself to be Breezy Shell cantering calmly up the snow covered path.
“Only me, but as I was saying, it’s too late to leave, we’re going to be snowed in very soon.”
“Who are you?” Dumbbell scowled, he hadn’t met the guide pony who had slipped away to some place remote as soon as Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane, and Cloudchaser had walked in.
Cloudchaser met Dumbbell at the doorway. “Oh, thats our guide, Breezy Shell, she lead us up here.” Both ponies made room for Breezy though she stopped at the door, peering into the dark cabin like like an owl searching a barn for mice.
“Bunker down and spend the night, its all we can do for now. A storm is coming soon.”
“What? You’re kidding!” Dumbbell stepped out into the night, looking up he saw the clear sky speckled with stars. “It’s a clear sky, not even snowing!” At that moment there was a sudden gust of wind, it rushed into the village with a gleeful howl, buffering the sturdy walls and pushing the settled piles of snow out in powerful flurries. The brown stallion was nearly knocked off his hooves, taken by surprise by the sudden rush, he scrambled back inside and slammed the oak door behind him. He shook himself to release the snow from his coat. And the chill, it was unbelievably cold!
It was very light but everyone swore they heard the guide pony chuckle. “I told you.” she said.
“She told you.” both Cloudchaser and Thunderlane repeated.
“Shut up!” Dumbbell shook one last time to get the chill out, then he sat down and sighed. “Damn. I didn’t see this coming.”
The wind picked up in prevalence as it ushered itself through the aisles and pathways, blowing soft snow hither and thither, it howled low and almost ominously. As if succeeding something else, proclaiming its arrival. It was oppressive and Thunderlane, for one, was tired of being cooped up in the small space.
“Well looks like we’re going to have to make the best of it. Until tomorrow anyway,” he grimaced and placed a foreleg against his belly. “None of you guys would happen to have food would you?”
The question was met with blank stares until Cloudchaser opened the door to go outside and find a place to sleep for the night. “I bought a bag of chips before we made the hike up here.” Thunderlane quickly followed her to the door. “Willing to share?” he pleaded.
“No. These are special cucumber chips with crystal dust sprinkled on top. They weren’t cheap but they taste de-li-cious. And are mine .” Cloudchaser made sure to sound out the last word lovingly much to her brother’s annoyance.
"Do any of these cabins hold extra blankets?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Oh there won't be any need." Wind Whistler chimed. "These homesteads are quite solid. And going by a few cursory observations, they've each been laced with a spell that expels excessive cold air. You will be nice and warm anywhere you choose to sleep tonight."
The others could still hear Thunderlane’s pleading with his sister as they walked further away in search of their own individual sleeping quarters. Soon after the rest dispersed as well, there was little left to say or do with each other and the only thing left to do was wait for morning. Breezy’s prediction on the storm seemed to be correct, as suspiciously sudden as it was, Rainbow Dash thought to herself as she rested on the bed inside of a little lonely cabin she had picked for herself.
A coincidence most likely, though she couldn’t be rid a nagging suspicion over the strange pony. Her mannerisms, her strange tone when she talked, and how she often seemed to simply vanish without telling anyone where she was going or where she would be. Not the best idea in a place like this. Even if the Crystal kingdom was technically only a few miles away. But it wouldn’t do any good to get up in the middle of the night, causing a disturbance over silly feelings and ridiculous uneasiness. She chalked it up to the nervousness of a rookie. After all, the head of the Wonderbolts herself had given Dash this task. She made up her mind to ask about the snowstorm tomorrow, despite a part of herself saying it was pointless to suspect anything and to just dismiss the current events as a string of bad luck.
As it was, the wait for the royal guard who were meant to meet the group in the Crystal mountains would be futile. On the day before the the wonderbolt trainees had started their journey, two pegasus guards were on route from Canterlot. Everything was quiet and fine as they flew over the expanse of rolling green hills, dotted by clusters of trees, woodlands, and the wide river that flowed strong far north to far south. It all looked peaceful until they neared the Neighagra Falls and the tiny village nestled on the small mountains on both sides of the vertical drop. A sturdy wood bridge connected the sides. ‘Not any more ’ one of the pegasi thought as they flew over the site. That morning he saw no bridge, only the support beams that ran along the bottom and what attached the bridge to the side of the mountain. The middle part of the structure looked to have been ripped away completely.
“Hey, Targe, do you see that?” The first pegasus guard pulled the attention of his partner down toward the cascading falls and the destroyed bridge. The other pony was equally surprised and both decided to swoop in on the village and investigate. They flew down over the mist of the fall, discovering massive chunks of the wooden structure shattered along the rocks and floating out into the pool to join the river further out. Both of the royal guards were nothing but baffled.
“What in the world happened?” asked the other stallion, who was named Silver Barding. “Lets go back up and see to the villagers, better make sure they’re alright.” Targe nodded and they flew back to the ledge of the waterfall to the small mountain’s morningside, over the dirt path leading from the bridge. They saw the little wooded homes sitting back a small distance from the falling water, sitting partially hidden amongst the tall evergreens. An initial scan from the air revealed nothing, none of the villagers were outside or performing any sort of business amongst themselves.
“Let’s split up, I’ll check this side, you fly over to the opposite side, we’ll make better time that way.” said Silver Barding. The two split and began their investigation. Bard landed in front of the first home and, deciding to be cautious, first investigated by peeking through the window. It was a small house, almost like a hut more than anything, with a homely picturesque living room holding a simply built table with chairs, a fireplace and shelves stacked with various items and knick knacks. But he detected nothing outwardly hostile, and could only hear the light breeze flowing loosely and the distant crash of the waterfall.
After searching the perimeter of several more homes he quickly realized that the little village truly was deserted, at least this part. But where had everypony gone? Just as he was beginning to contemplate entering one of the homes, Barding heard the soft sounds of hoofbeats behind him, he turned quickly to see a shape melting back into the forest.
“Who’s out there?” he said, not expecting a response and not getting one, he turned and followed the retreating sound. Whoever it was, already knew he was following, so there was no need to be cautious.
“Stop right there!” he shouted the order but the figure did not stop, but Barding was a fast runner even when encumbered with armor. He put on a burst of speed just as the object of his pursuit reached a small clearing. He overtook the other pony, grappling him to the ground, ending the chase, but not before they both rolled further down the hill several more feet. The runner went still immediately apparently with no spirit to fight and it was at that moment Silver Barding was aware of the presence of others. Cries of other ponies and hooves galloping toward him. He looked up and saw villagers, he assumed. What had to be the entire population, at least a hundred or more, huddled up into the shallow bowl of a valley below the village. Some seemed to be relieved to see him, recognizing his uniform. Others scared and a few confused by the sight of the pony underneath him.
“I-I’m sorry, sir! I d-didn’t mean to do anything w-wrong!” said the smaller pony, a teenage colt who was still caught up in the guard’s hooves. Slightly befuddled, Bard stepped away and allowed the pony to stand up scuttle into the crowd of approaching villagers.
“You’re here to help us, aren’t you?” asked a mare in a light blue bonnet and brown hiking boots. Her question was mirrored by several others asking the same thing. Bard stamped his hoof several times to quiet them all down.
“I’m Silver Barding of the Canterlot guard. Tell me, what has happened here?” He had to yell out again for order to be maintained as they swarmed him with hurried explanations.
“Last night, some strange creature flew into our village and started terrorizing us!” said one villager.
“Then we all ran outside and that’s where it got us. It was like... like a wind!”
“I thought it was a dragon, but it had a bird’s face!”
“Yeah a really mean face, absolutely ghastly!”
“Quiet all of you, quiet!” Silver Barding ordered, his mind racing. He couldn’t make sense of it with every pony clamoring at once. To their credit they followed his order and shut up immediately.
“Now let me get this straight. You’re telling me some kind of demon scared you all out of your homes and you all ran here?” he asked.
“It didn’t chase us here,” one mare said, her eyebrows creased as she tried to describe what had happened. “It picked us up and moved us here.”
“What?”
An elder stallion who had stayed near the back of the crowd finally decided to walk forward, his face looked grim but his eyes were drooped with worry.
“Not all of us are here, a few who didn’t leave their homes in time... don’t know what happened to them.”
“There is another guard searching the cabins on the other side of the bridge.” Silver Bard said.
“I th-thought so! I th-thought I saw another pegasus flying over the falls w-with you.” the pony who spoke was the small teenager he had tackled before. He apparently suffered a bad stutter.
“I was t-t-trying to sneak back up there to s-see you-but,” he swallowed and his ears twitched incessantly. “I got sp-p-ooked by the wind and ran, and then y-you followed me!” he said excitedly, almost panic stricken. “Th-that monster destroyed our b-bridge, to the only safe way off the mountain, and... And if your friend is still over th-there then he might already be...” he trailed to silence.
“Already be what? What?” Silver Barding insisted but the teen colt didn’t respond. He was looking past the guard, over his head. Bard turned left and right, and saw everypony else also staring at the sky. He turned around and looked up himself.
Rocketing up out of the trees like a geyser was a beam of green light. It shimmered and wavered, putting off a striking amount of light against the afternoon sky. A warning beacon! Silver Barding reacted just as a forceful gale erupted from the treeline, followed by a foreboding wail that sent every bird in the forest into the air.
It’s strength give him need to brace himself. He could feel his hooves digging into the dirt and he heard many behind him shout in surprise when the wind struck them. They scattered backwards, trying to find cover.
“Nobody move from here!” he ordered, he did his best to throw his voice over the force of the gale. He galloped back into the valley, spreading his wings. Then he was in the air, banking out and over the windstream. The beacon was still strong and from his new vantage point, he could see the tumult of dirt and destruction at its base. Yep, Targe was definitely in trouble. Barding flipped his visor and slid the spear out of its holding and in a dash he flew down into the expanding tornado.
The pegasus guard heard the crack and splinter of a log cabin collapsing under the force of the wind, he had to swerve in mid air to avoid parts of trees and homes thrown wild. Bard saw another blast of green magic in the storm of dust, dirt, and debris. It connected with something solid but it was impossible to see what it was. Targe was fighting the anomaly, spear plunged halfway into the ground with his hooves wrapped around it, to keep his aim steady but mostly to keep himself from being blasted off the ground and into the forest. Silver Barding landed next to him, shouting at the top of his lungs to get his voice over the wind.
“Get in the air!” . Just then, he felt the ground shake beneath his hooves. A shattering rumble of a large piece of roofing being dragged across the terrain right across their path. They shot upward, avoiding the debri and into the open air. From there they could see that every home was completely leveled and scattered.
“Whats going on here?” asked Barding. Targe shook his head, his nostrils heaving. By the looks of it he had already been in a fight. “I don’t know what it is, Bard!” “It just hit me like a wall. I could feel the thing on me but I couldn’t see it, and the next thing I know, its tearing the place apart!”
“I see that.” Silver Barding mumbled. At that moment something rushed up to meet them, grazing Barding across the flank, he flinched and flew back, confused and suddenly intensley cold. “Whatever it is, its invisible!”
“No it isn’t....there it is!” Targe shouted pointing up with his spear. Bard could just barely see it against the slowly setting sun but there it was. Small body with a form that reminded him of a dragon, but the wings were feathered. The creature dived just as both guards shot out streams of repellant magic from their spears. The green blasts met their mark and the animal was thrown off course, careening sideways and away from the mountain top.
“Stay on it,” Bard ordered, they would have to give chase, wherever it went, and possibly capture it before it could cause more trouble. The creature dropped and leveled out when it was a fair distance away from the two guards, it looked like it was trying to escape. The guards kept pace, the crystal tips of their spears recharged with magic, they aimed and fired. The green bolts of magic hit their mark, a satisfying ‘thump-boom’ was the report as the repellent spell exploded against their quarry. It flapped its wings and floundered before losing altitude. Just as the two pegasi began to close in it suddenly vanished, melting into the air.
“Where did it go?” said Targe. Both guards braked in the air, searching the sky, it was nowhere to be seen.
“It couldn’t have just vanished...could it?” They hung in the air silently, a similar thought floating through their minds, unicorn teleportation. But this was no unicorn.
The guided rush of wind hit Targe with no warning. Like a solid object it hit straight on with enough force to send him into a tailspin, blowing Barding away by several yards. Barding struggled to regain control and by the time he did, it was just in time to see his partner floundering with terror down into the tree tops. He heard the howling screech dangerously close to himself and another rush of wind travelling north filled his ears with an angry wail, pulling him along its slipstream until he was able to force himself free. Then it was gone.
Barding felt lost as he hung in the air, not even realizing that the thing had ripped his spear right out of his hooves.
“Targe?” Silver Barding said aloud, but then he remembered what had happened.
“Targe! Hold on!” The guard dived back down to the mountain, through the pine trees, in the spot he could only guess was where his comrade had fallen. It didn’t take long to find him. He had crash landed on a pile of unrecognizable debri, what used to be a sturdy two story home. He landed and stood over his friend, trying to understand the damage with a desperate haste.
“Targe! Targe are you alright! Open your eyes”
The pony laying on the ground flinched and stirred slightly against the rubble, his eyes opening stubbornly despite the guard’s pain and exhaustion. Barding felt a rush of hope fly through him though he saw Targe’s foreleg trapped underneath heavy cabin logs, he knew his friend was injured.
Barding walked over to the logs and began to pull them away, gently so as to not cause further damage.
“Start talking to me, friend, I’m getting you out of this mess.” he said.
Targe coughed and flinched again. He felt numb and consumed with fatigue with every part of his body, except for one.
“My leg...its...”
Silver Barding wasn’t able to respond under the strain of moving the heavy log. As it finally rolled away, the two guards could only look on in confusion. Targe’s foreleg up to the knee was no more, what sat in its place was nothing more than pale blue shattered and dry crystalline ice.
.