Broken Feathers: Desert Storm

Chapters

The Clouds Are Alive
Caligo
Sand...
When the Stars Disappear

The Clouds Are Alive

"Oh this is going to be so much fun!" The rather chipper voice belong to that of a sandy colored earth pony mare. Her mane was a mix of pink and faded blue, and there were three small wrapped candies for a cutie mark.

Bon Bon was sitting next to Lyra Heartstrings in a seat on the third car on the Equestrian Express. The ponies on the train were growing restless, and Bon Bon's hyper activity wasn't helping. They had been on the train for eighteen hours, all on their way from Ponyville and heading to Dodge Junction. There was still an hour between them and their destination. Most ponies had tried to get as much sleep as they could. Bon Bon had all the energy in the world and thus was a wake nearly the entire time, vibrating in her seat. Lyra, on the other hoof, had wanted to get some sleep but was otherwise unable to. She frustratingly rubbed both her hooves against her temples, sighing heavily.

"Bon Bon..." she said, laying her head against the rest behind her and staring up at the ceiling. "We've been on this train for over eighteen hours... and I haven't gotten any sleep. I haven't gotten any sleep because you haven't gone to sleep. So tell me..." She sat up and put her arms on Bon Bon's shoulders to stop the sandy mare from bouncing any more. "How in Celestia's name are you so hyper?"

"I'm not hyper, I'm excited!"

"Ugh. What for? It's just a silly little concert! You've gone with me to hundreds of these things."

"Yeah but none of them have been to a nice little town in the desert. It'll give me a chance to get my own name out there; to sell my candies. Finally I'll have a competing chance against Sugar Cube Corner. Come on, it'll be a fun experience. We'll be able to go out afterwards and see all the sights..."

"Bon Bon."

"Yeah?"

"There are no sights."

"What?"

"Dodge Junction is literally in the middle of a flat desert plain with nothing but a few dunes around it. There. Are. No. Sights. To. See."

"Something different than Ponyville and Canterlot, at least."

"So Las Pegasus wasn't different?"

"Hey! I don't even remember Las Pegasus, so how should I know?" There was a pause. "Was it different?"

"I... I think? I don't know... Maybe? Minuette should know; she was with us."

"Was she in as poor... condition... as us?"

"Honestly I can't remember. I don't think so. It's unlikely that she was."

"Yeah, she's got that thing against hard cider, doesn't she?"

There was a pause in their conversation.

"I don't know about you," Lyra said, "but I have to perform in a concert in a few hours; I need some sleep. So could you please just... calm down?"

"Fine..." Bon Bon sighed and made herself comfortable. Lyra rested her head against her friend's shoulder and closed her eyes. The train soon was able to rock her to sleep.

A little over an hour had passed when the train finally arrived at the small station in Dodge Junction. Bon Bon managed to wake Lyra up, and together the two mares stepped onto the platform and awaited their luggage to be unloaded. A few bags and a large case that contained a harp were brought out by the stewards of the train. The concert wasn't set to start until the late afternoon, which was still a few hours away, so the ponies went to a small hotel they were staying at to leave their luggage. Crew ponies for the concert had taken the harp and moved it to the stage, where they were preparing for the event that was to be taking place there later that night.

Lyra opted to stay in the hotel and catch up on as much sleep as she could. With nothing else to do, Bon Bon set a course to explore the town and all of its sights. It was a small and rickety looking town with sand in every crevasse. If a steady wind came rolling through then the entire place might have been blown to the ground. The small town of somewhere between twenty-five and fifty ponies wasn't much to look at.

Though with a resent discovery of silver outside the badlands, the mayor of the little establishment had planned a little celebration in the hopes of drawing in a population to his little village. In his mind, they had a shot at keeping with Appleloosa for best town in the desert if it went as planed. Lyra Heartstrings was by far perhaps the biggest performer he was able to get to come to the celebration, however, after receiving several rejections from others like the Wonderbolts, and DJ-Pon3. A small stage had been set up in the center of town were Lyra would be playing her harp for the gathering crowds of ponies, hopefully luring them in from the train station as they got off to head for the new silver mines. On the other side of town, a magnificent red tent had been set up where the Flim Flam brothers would be performing a circus-like show to entertain those who had already chosen to stay.

Bon Bon moved about the settlement, keeping to herself, trying to find the best place to set up a small stand to sell samples of her confectionaries. She made a mental note to pay a visit to the local general store the next day; if her candies were popular enough in the desert village than maybe the owner would be willing to act as an extension and sell them for her while she continued to make them back in Ponyville. Not even Sugar Cube Corner was selling its products outside of Ponyville. This could be the break she needed!

A small spot outside a two story green painted building caught her eye. It had a sigh hanging from the front of the building with a giant picture of a juicy red apple. Since apples were so commonly sought after, it was likely that this was a busy place of business. Bon Bon managed to get ahold of a table, which she set up outside the store. On top of it she placed a few boxes of her chocolate candies, trying to keep them shaded as best she could so that they wouldn't melt.

In no time, she was attracting a significant amount of attention from the crowd in the center of town. Less than an hour had passed and she made several hundred bits, and completely sold all of the samples she had brought with her. All there was to do now was to wait for the show to begin and give Lyra her utmost support.

A few hours later; the sun was in the final quarter of the sky. Ponies had left their homes and encampments around the town and gathered in front of the small stage. Lyra's harp was sitting on the wooden platform, waiting for its strings to be plucked with skill. Bon Bon was towards the center of the crowd where she looked around for her musically talented friend who was still no where to be seen. Which wasn't very unusual to the tan earth pony. Even though Lyra was a performer, and had done this many times before, she still wasn't a fan of crowds.

On cue, at the last possible second, Lyra emerged from behind the train station. She crossed the tracks and stepped up to the stage to the applause of the crowd of ponies. She sat on a small stool next to the harp, situating herself accordingly. Giving one last look to the crowd, she saw Bon Bon eagerly waving from the middle. Lyra responded with a sheepish smile, trying to hide behind her bangs and returning a small wave. She took a deep breath while turning her attention back to the harp between her hooves. Giving it a few testing plucks emanated the sound she wanted to hear, telling her that it was ready.

Lyra began manipulating the strings in her hooves. Notes seemed to naturally float through the air, soothing the ears of the ponies in the crowds. Each string gave its own pitch and frequency, varying by the string's length, gauge and where on the string it was plucked. She sat in her seat with her eyes closed lightly, focusing on the memory of the musical piece she had played hundreds, if not thousands, of times before.

Several minutes of this went by. At the end of her first piece, the crowd was thoroughly transfixed on her; the part of the performance that Lyra didn't like. She tried to stay behind her mane and concentrate on the music, not the ponies watching her every movement with zealous attention. A cold chill ran up her spine, sending her out of her meditative state. Ignoring it, Lyra pressed on with the performance.

In the crowd, Bon Bon easily spotted the subtle change in her best friend. Looking around, everypony else was to busy listening to the music ad watching her hooves move to notice. Wandering what happened, Bon Bon moved forward, pushing her way past a few ponies. She stopped in her tracks when something touched her hoof that was numbingly cold, a stark contrast to the warm desert sand. Bon Bon glanced down. At first she thought it was a snake that was slithering across her hoof, but it didn't have the same texture that a snake would have, nor the same eyes. In fact, it didn't have any eyes in the first place.

What the...?

She traced the black tendril that crossed under the legs of the ponies next to her as far as she could, even going as far as to bend down to get a better view. The thing criss crossed along the sand beneath the crowd, disappearing into a small alley way. Bon Bon pushed her way through the crowd. On the other side of the alley, between two buildings, several wisps of dark fog floated by. She felt the air cool around her; the sun had been blocked by something.

Bon Bon looked up. Low hanging black clouds had choked out the sun like a thick fog. Lyra's blissful music came to a crawl as she too felt the sudden chill. She, along with everypony else, were snapped out of their trance. They each instinctively looked up towards where the sun should have been. An eerie silence fell over the entire town. Something possessed Lyra to look down the main street leading away from the station through the center of town, behind the crowd. A silent streak of cobalt blue lightning crossed its black surface.

Somepony in the back of the crowd let out a terrifying screech. All eyes turned in the direction of the sound. A mare was being dragged across the ground, a pair of those same black tendrils that Bon Bon had seen were wrapped around her legs, pulling her across the sand. The leading edge of the fog was only a few yards away. When the innocent mare was dragged past the threshold, she completely disappeared from view, her screams silenced. For a moment, everything stopped. Everypony looked on in horror at the spot where the mare had just been pulled into the still approaching fog.

It was a moment that didn't last long.

Dozens of the same black tendrils that had snatched that mare shot out from the black fog, sliding along the ground. Everypony scattered like cockroaches, screaming in terror. More tendrils slid out of the alleys and over the tops and along the sides of buildings. There was no where to go; the town was nearly surrounded. A stallion on the left side of the stage was snatched next. Lyra turned just in time to see him pulled into the storm. It gave her a perfect view of the tendrils that were sliding across the stage towards her.

"Lyra!" The mare whose name had been called looked at Bon Bon, who was standing in the center of the panicking crowd, waving a hoof to get her friend's attention. "Lyra! Over here! Quickly!"

Seeing no need to dilly-dally, Lyra jumped off the stage just as the tendrils reached out for her, missing.

"What's going on?" Lyra hastily asked once arriving next to her tan friend.

"I don't know but we need to get out of here!"

There was another loud scream next to the mares. They both looked to see a mare being pulled along the ground by her legs. She was pleading with the stallion that was holding onto her arms to not let go, but he too was being dragged with her. He reached out with one arm and grabbed onto a cart that was loaded down with heavy rocks. For a moment it seemed to work; he and the mare stopped. The tendrils that had grabbed hold of the mare seemed to stop for a moment before beginning to pull even harder. The stallion's grip on the cart slipped, and he, and the mare, were quickly pulled into the storm, their screams silenced.

Lyra fell to the ground with something wrapped around one of her legs. She managed to roll onto her back to see that it was a tendril, blue streaks of electricity running across its cloudy surface.

"Bon Bon!" she cried.

The earth pony suddenly appeared in Lyra's field of vision, a shovel in hoof. She viciously smacked and stabbed at the tendril, grunting with the force of each blow. The blue streaks along the tendril shone brightly as the appendage flinched from the impacts of the shovel. A loud series of high pitched chirps and rumbles were emitted from the storm itself, apparent screams from the clouds. The black tentacle let go of Lyra's leg, quickly retreating back into the storm. Bon Bon quickly helped friend stagger to their hooves.

"Let's get out of here!" Lyra panted. Apparently everypony else shared their testament as they sought out any cover they could. Ponies were rushing through the doors of nearby buildings, locking themselves inside.

Lyra and Bon Bon rapped on the doors, trying to gain entry to the shelters. But at each building, they were pushed back outside, with sincere apologies from the occupiers inside, who said that there simply wasn't enough room. The two mares stood in the center of the now nearly deserted street, looking for someplace to hide. Only a few ponies were left outside other than themselves, and in the mean time a few more had been taken by the still approaching storm, which had now nearly completely engulfed the town. The only place that it hadn't yet consumed was the train station.

Together, they sprinted for it, leaping across the tracks, up onto the platform, and through the door into the main reception room. Bon Bon quickly found a small, doorless room that she pulled Lyra in to hide inside of. The two friends squeezed themselves behind a desk, holding one another in their embrace, hoping... no, praying... that the storm didn't find them. For a moment, Lyra could see blue sky out one of the windows that faced away from the direction the storm had come from. But soon, that too was consumed by blackness. Frost began to form on the windows, and the ponies' breaths became visible as the temperature suddenly dropped.

A chill ran down Lyra's back, but not from the temperature. It was from a sudden realization.

"Bon Bon...?" she began hesitantly.

"Yeah?" Bon Bon's voice was quivering just as much as her mouth was.

"Did you shut the door behind us when we ran inside?"

Now it was Bon Bon's turn to have a chill run down her back. In the rush to seek shelter, she didn't close the door behind them as they ran into the deserted train station. Neither one of them knew what this meant, but they were both too afraid to find out. In a few minutes, they got their answer.

It first came in the form of a lower series of chirps, followed by a quiet howling sound. Both of their eyes were fixated on the open doorway in front of them. A few dark wisps cross through the doorway, appearing to harmlessly float about. Unfortunately for Lyra and Bon Bon, they were merely the precursors of what was to come. Soon, several of the black tendrils found their way inside the small room. They stopped midway through the doorway, seemingly to smell the air and look around the room. Then they continued towards the cornered mares.

"Lyra, do something!"

"I... I don't know what I can do..."

"You're a unicorn! Can't you use like... battle magic... or something... on it?"

"I'm not a guard! I only know simple levitation spells and things to help me with my music! That's it!"

"Well do something!"

Lyra took a deep breath and stood up. She focused, applying magic to her horn with the intention of at least grabbing hold of the tendrils and getting rid of them. Somehow. But when her light green colored aura wrapped itself around the tendrils, the streaks of blue electricity lit up. But instead of signaling the tendrils' retreat like it had last time, they were apparently building up a static charge. Before Lyra could react, blue streaks of electricity wrapped around the aura that was around the tendrils, then jumped to the tip of her horn, zapping her. In the midst of a loud popping sound, she was propelled into the wall behind her.

She rubbed her head and opened her eyes. Her hearing was dominated by a high pitched ringing that drowned out all other sounds, including those of Bon Bon's screams. The tendrils had wrapped themselves around the earth pony's legs and were dragging her back through the door way. Lyra's felt like her head was spinning, otherwise she would have helped her friend. She did try to get up, but immediately felt nauseous and fell back down to her knees.

When Lyra got back on her hooves, she saw that Bon Bon was gone. She stumbled out of the room, bracing herself up against the doorframe to make sure that she didn't fall down again. To the side she caught a glimpse of Bon Bon's arms just before they disappeared around the corner. Again Lyra chased after her friend, stumbling over her own hooves, and still with the ringing in her ears.

"Bon Bon!" Lyra called out. She wasn't sure if she actually said anything, she could even hear her own voice over the incessant ringing.

Lyra tripped a over a slightly elevated wooden board that was protruding from the floor. She rolled head over hooves a few times before coming to a stop on her back. Turning her head to the side brought the main doorway into the train station into her field of vision. Through it, Lyra saw Bon Bon clawing and scratching at the wooden plank floor, trying to find something to hold onto as the storm continued to drag her away.

"Lyra!" Bon Bon's voice was barely audible as the unicorn's hearing slowly returned to her, though the ringing was still relatively prominent. Hearing her friend's voice gave Lyra the ability to climb back to her hooves. She wobbled her way towards the door, towards Bon Bon's cries for help.

She felt like all of the energy had been sapped out of her. Under any other circumstance it was likely that she wouldn't even be able to stand feeling like this, much less try to run. Though when she got to the doorway, she finally reached the point where she couldn't continue. Lyra fell down, part of her leaning up against the door frame. She tried to keep her head up as much as she could, watching helplessly as Bon Bon was dragged away.

Lyra casted a spell, hoping to grab onto Bon Bon and pull her away from the storm. All that she ended up creating were sparks that sputtered out of the tip of her horn. As Bon Bon disappeared into the storm, Lyra's vision faded to black.

Lyra broke down, crying into her hooves. Minuette rubbed her back caringly, trying to sooth her friend.

"I'm sorry!" she wailed.

"It's alright, Miss Heartstrings," Phantom said, setting his pin down on his small notebook. He had already gone through several pages worth, nearly filling the small pad up completely. "We can take a break."

"But it's my fault that she's gone!" Lyra looked up at Phantom, a tear leaking from her eye. "I couldn't help her then... I failed her... I failed her and now she's gone."

"Don't say that, Lyra," Minuette said, putting herself in Lyra's field of vision. "You did everything you could have. It's not your fault."

"Minuette's right," Phantom agreed. "The things you faced were unlike anything anypony has ever seen before, and you survived, even while attempting to fight back and save Bon Bon. You're lucky that it didn't take you."

"Lucky..." Lyra sighed. "I'm lucky? Bon Bon is out there! Somewhere! Alone! Alone and it's all my fault. I tried to help her, but couldn't... Now I'm going to help get her back in anyway I can."

"A break sounds like a good idea. There's no use in trying to push yourself too far by recreating a traumatic event. Just rest for a minute, you'll feel better."

"I'll get you some more tea," Minuette said, picking up Lyra's empty glass and heading back to the kitchen. Phantom took a sip from his own cup, simultaneously reexamining the notes he had already written down while he waited for Minuette's return.

"Have you been a guard for very long?" Lyra looked over at Phantom, watching him as he reread his notes.

"I'll be starting my fifth year this coming Winter Wrap-Up."

"Handle many cases?"

"Loads."

"Anything like this?"

Phantom paused. "No, not quite like this. As far as investigating goes, I normally work on break-ins, corruption, ponynapping, things like that."

"So if you haven't done anything on this level, why did Princess Celestia send you? Why didn't she just send the Elements of Harmony?"

"Last I had heard they were busy wrapping up the Equestrian Games in the Crystal Empire. It would also appear that she doesn't want to send them down here with absolutely no information, thus the reason I'm here."

Minuette returned with a fresh compliment of tea. She set the steaming cup in front of Lyra before sitting back down beside her friend. Lyra waited a moment before taking a sip of the sweet drink.

"So what happens now?" Minuette asked Phantom.

"Well, if Lyra feels like she's up to it, I'd like to get a little bit more information on the storm."

"I am," Lyra said. "Anything if it helps to find Bon Bon."

Phantom nodded. "Alright. You said you passed out; so tell me, what happened after you woke up? Was the storm gone? How did the other ponies who made it through act afterwards? Was there any damage? Things like that..."

"Ma'am," a voice called. "Ma'am, are you alright?"

Lyra's eyes fluttered open. The sun was at its peak in the sky, illuminating the desert around her. Everything seemed normal for the most part; nothing appeared to be broken. But their also seemed to be less ponies out and about than normal. Above her stood a gray coated unicorn with a black mane. He extended a hoof down to Lyra to help her up, much to her thanks.

"Yeah," she replied, "Yeah I'll be fine. My head may not, though..." She put a hoof up to her aching head in an attempt to quell the pain. Lyra's eyes went wide, ad her jaw dropped open, allowing her to take in a large gulp of air. "Bon Bon!" She turned towards the stallion and put her hands on his shoulders. "That storm took her! We have to find out where she went!"

"Ma'am, look around. We've all lost somepony." Lyra followed where he was pointing with his hoof. The few ponies who were out and about were walking around slowly and in a daze. It looked like the only damage that was done was to the ponies themselves; the town looked completely normal. Everypony had a thousand yard stare in their eyes. "Initial count puts it at ten missing ponies, but we fear that there are more that we have discovered yet."

"What happened, anyway?"

"The Storm has returned," spoke a new voice. The two ponies turned around to see a frail-looking, pale coated pegasus mare behind them, leaning forward on a cane in the train station's doorway. Her short mane and tail were snow white, making her sapphire blue eyes pop out that much more. On her flank, sat a cutie mark depicting a purple ball of yarn.

"What storm is that?" the stallion asked. "I've never heard of storms doing anything like this one."

"Caligo, as the Buffalo call it, isn't like other storms. Not even the Everfree Forest produces anything like it."

"So what does, then?"

"The Badlands."

There was a moment of silence as Lyra finished her story. After she had talked to the elderly mare, she said that she boarded the first train that came into town, wanting to get out of there no matter the direction it went. That's how she ended up in Appleloosa, and not her home town of Ponyville.

Phantom took a big breath and stretch in his chair, popping his back against the rest of the chair. He closed his small notebook, putting it, and his pin, back in the chest pockets of his tan vest. Picking up the cup of tea in his hoof, Phantom finished off the drink before setting it back down on the table.

"So do you have all the information you need?" MInuette asked.

"Yeah," Phantom nodded his head. "This information will help a lot. Thank you, Lyra." There was a pause. "If you two'll excuse me, I have to go update Princess Celestia on what's going on, and that I'm here." He stood up, put his tan boonie hat back on, and began walking towards the door. Lyra remained in her seat, blankly staring down at her now half empty cup of tea. Minuette stayed at her side, trying to comfort her.

Stepping through the door, Phantom stood under the awning and performed a long, high pitched whistle. At first nothing happened. Then, a creature not native to the desert cast its shadow on the sandy road. In a few seconds, the winded being swooped in in front of Phantom to make its appearance. It was a bird, a little larger than an eagle, with very distinctive and bright red and orange feathers. The phoenix looked up at the midnight blue pegasus, waiting.

Phantom took out a piece of quill and pin, placing them on the ground as he started to write.

"Philomena," he said, still writing, "take this to Princess Celestia. It details everything I've learned thus far, tells her where I am, where I'm staying, and where I'm going tomorrow. Tell her I await her reply."

Philomena nodded as Phantom carefully placed the rolled up parchment in her beak. The phoenix spread her wings and took flight, tailing fire as she flew towards the sun. Performing a tight barrel roll, tucking her wings in, Philomena disappeared in a flash of fire.

"So what now?" MInuette asked, coming up behind Phantom from inside. She stood by his side, looking up into the part of the sky that the phoenix had disappeared in.

"Tomorrow I'm going to Dodge Junction to find out what that ponies knows about this... Caligo..."

Author's Note

Don't panic... okay, panic. There's a chance that this might be the last chapter posted. I'll try to get more out... but there's no guarantees. Thursday, I turn in my school laptop, and thus lose my main tool for writing. Hang in there guys, I'll try to stay with ya.

Hopefully this won't be the last time I do this;
Coming up next: The Caligo myth returns from a deep slumber.

Caligo

The hinges of the trap door at the top of the clock tower creaked as the door was magically opened. From the stairwell under it climbed Minuette, stepping hoof into the bell room of the clock tower. She looked around and saw no sign of the midnight blue pegasus who had gone up there to sleep the night before. To her side was his vest and hat, placed neatly on top of the rest of the stuff he had brought up there. He should be up by now, she thought, still looking around for any sign of him. I told him I had to start the bells at six... Outside, the sun was just barely poking over the horizon, its dim light softly illuminating the steeple through the heavily frosted glass.

In front of her, a midnight blue feather caught her eye. It was floating down softly in the dusty haze of the clock tower, nearly suspended in the air. Minuette looked up, moving off to the side so that the large bell didn't obstruct her view from what was above it. Near the top of the tower, Phantom laid on the cross beam that held up the bell itself, his left arm and left leg hanging off of the edge, swinging back and forth softly. His right wing hung limp over the edge in a relaxed manner. Though Minuette couldn't see his face, the stallion was too busy burring his muzzle into his left wing and pulling out the broken feathers, and aligning the rest.

"Hey!" Minuette shouted up to him. Apparently Phantom hadn't heard her enter the steeple. The pegasus was visibly startled, jumping to an attentive state in his spot. With a single flap of his wings, Phantom was brought to a standing position on the beam, bending at the arms slightly as if he were about to pounce. Once he looked down to see who had shouted did he relax. Opening his wings, Phantom glided down to the wooden floor and landed next to Minuette. "On edge much?" she raised an eyebrow.

"It's not a good idea to sneak up on me," Phantom replied, his voice still slightly groggy from just waking up.

"Why were you even up there in the first place?"

"I was preening," he deadpanned. "Pegasi are vulnerable when we're preening, so we subconsciously put ourselves in positions where threats can only come from a few directions. Natural selection and what-not." Phantom yawned away his sleepiness. Minuette maintained her expression. "You don't have very many pegasus friends, do you?"

"No."

"Thought not."

"Have you heard anything back from Princess Celestia?"

Phantom shook his head. "I was actually on my way to go check now."

"Well you had better hurry, the bells are about to start and trust me when I say you do not want to be up here when they go off. The mechanism that controls the clocks may be quiet, but the bells aren't."

"Duly noted." Phantom led the way towards the trap door, allowing Minuette to go down it first. Remembering his vest and hat, Phantom went to put those on before rejoining the mare in the stair well. "Lyra still here?" he asked, hovering next to the mare as she descended the wooden supports.

Minuette nodded. "I offered her my bed for the night while I slept on the couch. She's a fair ways from home; I don't want her making the trip back on her own."

"I'm not going back," said Lyra's voice. Phantom and Minuette looked down from their position about halfway up the clock tower towards the mint unicorn below them. At some point she had stepped through the door during their conversation.

Minuette ran down the rest of the stairs while Phantom glided down to Lyra's side.

"What do you mean, 'You're not going back,'?" Minuette demanded.

"Just that." Lyra adjusted herself so that she was standing up taller in defiance. "I'm not going back to Ponyville, not without Bon Bon at my side."

"Lyra..." Minuette sighed.

"No, Minuette. I lost her, and I'm not going to leave her behind."

"So what," Phantom began, "you're just going to stay here until we find her? And that's even if we find her."

"I'm not staying here, either..."

"Oh please don't say you're—"

"I'm going with you."

"Yeah... No." Phantom walked past Lyra, through the door and into the lobby of the building.

"No? What they hay do you mean by 'No,'?"

Lyra left the clock tower, following after Phantom with Minuette behind her. The three ponies were grouped together in the lobby of the building, where Phantom was walking towards the door. He was the first to step out side into the rising desert sun, still failing to answer Lyra's question.

"I mean, 'No,'. You are not going with me. It's too much of a risk."

"Oh come on, Phantom," Minuette said as she and Lyra followed the pegasus outside. Phantom stopped at the top of the steps and sighed, waiting for the blue unicorn to continue. "It's not like you're going to go after the storm. You're just going over to Dodge Junction to meet with somepony to find out more information about this storm. Nothing's going to happen."

Phantom craned his neck around to look at the two mares. "Trouble has a way of finding me... Last time somepony I worked with said 'nothing is going to happen', we were both very nearly killed. The answer is: No. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to check to see if Princess Celestia has gotten back to me yet, and I have a train to catch."

On cue, the sound of a distant whistle pierced the silent air, signalling the approaching train. Phantom spread his wings. Giving them a powerful flap, he rose into the air and circled the clock tower, landing on top of the steeple where he was to await word from a certain phoenix.

On top of the tower, attached to a wind indicator that showed the cardinal directions and depicted a flying pegasus that pointed towards where the wind was going, Phantom discovered a royally sealed piece of parchment carefully tied to the base rod. Phantom pulled on one of the strings on the small bow, releasing the knot and allowing the parchment to be freed. He caught the scroll before it could be blown away by the wind. Unraveling it in his hooves, the pegasus read the letter.

It started out by thanking him for volunteering for the assignment, and for putting up with the long train ride to get there. Going on, it stated that awareness of the 'Caligo' phenomenon was finally starting to spread throughout Equestria, particularly in the areas around Ponyville and Las Pegasus, since those were the two major non-dessert settlements that were closest to the affected region. Although word hadn't fully captured the attention of the media yet, which was noted in the letter as 'odd', mention was made of the recent Caligo incident in Dodge Junction, with seventeen ponies confirmed missing thus far. Phantom was instructed by the contents of the letter to carry out his plans and to proceed to Dodge Junction, asking around and finding out what he could about Caligo. At the bottom was a footnote from Captain Armor, requesting that Lyra be sent to him so that he and the Royal Sisters could ask her their own line of questions, and so that she'd be safe. Below that, it was signed by Princess Celestia.

"Get down from there before you hurt yourself!" Minuette called up to the pegasus.

"Yes, mother," Phantom signed loudly enough so that the blue unicorn could hear him. Rolling the parchment back up, he unfurled his wings and floated to the sandy streets below.

"What's the verdict?" Lyra asked, stepping up beside Phantom once he had tucked his wings back in.

"You two are going to Canterlot to see Shining Armor. He, and the Princess, would like to ask Lyra similar questions as I did."

"While you go to Dodge Junction?" Minuette protested. "No way!"

"What if you're in Dodge Junction with me and another of these storms hits for the third time? I can't put you two in danger like that."

"What if a storm hits Appleloosa for the first time? We'll be in danger anyway! Answer me that, Mister Royal Guard!"

"You won't be in any danger because you'll be over twenty hours away in Canterlot. Surrounded by the best weather teams in all of Equestria. This storm won't get anywhere near you."

Phantom and Minuette were by now muzzle to muzzle, glaring into one anther's eyes. Sparks of electricity seemed to zap between their foreheads before Lyra decided to intervene.

"Enough!" she yelled, pushing the two ponies apart with her hooves. "Fine, we'll go to Canterlot, alright? Just... Find Bon Bon, please?"

"I'll try my best," Phantom replied, turning and heading towards the train.

Lyra and Minuette stood side by side and watched as the pegasus walked towards the station. Once he was out of earshot, Minuette turned towards her friend.

"We're not actually going to Canterlot, are we?" Minuette asked with resignation.

"Nope," Lyra deadpanned, turning to walk back towards the clock tower to grab what things she had there.

"Minuette sighed, bower her head heavily. "... I Thought not..."

Phantom spent most of the train ride resting his eyes. Since it was a relatively short trip, there wasn't any catering. And due to recent events, not very many ponies were on the train, let alone the car he was in; he had it all to himself. With no pony to talk to, nothing to read, eat, drink, and no beds to rest in, he leaned his head against the window and allowed his mind to wonder. Occasionally he'd open his eyes and look out at the passing desert. But with little to see other than sand, interest quickly died, and he drifted off into a resting state.

He was only fully brought out of his doze by the change in timing between the clicks of the car's wheels passing over joints in the tracks. It telegraphed to Phantom that they were slowing down; they were approaching Dodge Junction.

In a few minutes the train had pulled into the station of the quaint settlement. Phantom slid out from his booth seat, standing up in the aisle of the empty car, stretching out the stiffness in his legs and wings. The ticket master for the train came by before long to open the door to allow Phantom his leave, and to let anypony, if there were any, board.

"Not very many passengers here, either," the ticket master said as she and Phantom stepped off the car together. There were only a hoof-full of ponies waiting to board.

"Can't really blame them," Phantom replied, looking around. "If I were them, I'd get the hat out of here before anything else happened."

"So why aren't you one of them?"

Phantom took his tan hat out of a pouch on his vest and put it on, shielding him partly from the afternoon sun's rays.

"Because I"m trying to stop it."

"Pfft, good luck. This thing appears to be unstoppable. How do you even beat a storm?"

"By being stubborn." With his parting words said, Phantom let the ticketer return to her duties.

His first task was to locate the Sheriff, who would be the prominent figure in a settlement of this size. Not knowing specifically where the authoritative pony's office would be, Phantom took off trotting through the center of town, looking from building to building. The town streets appeared to be nearly deserted, with the only pedestrians being ponies who were zipping from building to building. Several times Phantom caught ponies staring at him through windows. Some of them looked confused, some scared, others were smiling and seemed hopeful at his presence while others had looks of awe. Phantom stopped in the middle of the street, feeling everypony's eyes on him.

"Hello?" a voice whispered from the shadows. Phantom's ears perked up and his head turned to face an alley to his right.

Phantom took a hesitant step towards the alley, adjusting his head so that he could see better. Quickly his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he could see the smaller face of some teen-aged filly poking out from behind a dumpster.

"Who are you?" she asked again with a hushed voice, taking another step out from behind her cover.

"Phantom Knight," Phantom replied with a calm tone. "I'm a Staff Sergeant with the Royal Guard. You?"

"I'm Quill, I help out at the general store here." As the conversation was drawn on, Quill was slowly moving towards the light outside the alley. "Why are you here?"

"I came to find out what happened in this town; about the storm." On mention of the infamous storm, Quill quickly retreated back behind the dumpster with a startled yelp. "Why are you hiding back here, if you don't mind me asking?"

"This is where I hid when the clouds came. If I leave... they... they might find me."

"Don't you have anypony you can stay with? Parents?"

Phantom could see her shaking her head in the shadows. "They were taken by the storm." Quill once again stepped out from behind the dumpster, advancing towards the pegasus. In the darkness, it was difficult for Phantom to discern any features about her other than her green eyes.

"Well, the storm isn't here right now, so you're safe. Do you want to come out into the light so that it's not so dark?"

"No!" Quill took a step back. "I-I mean... If I go into the light, the storm will see me."

"It isn't here, Quill. Besides, if it were, I'd personally make sure that it didn't get anywhere near you."

"Really?"

"Really really."

"Well, okay..." Step by careful step, Quill slowly emerged from the shadows of the alley. The first thing Phantom saw was her head, full of brown hair from her mane. Her coat was a soft orange. Further advancement into the light revealed a quill and some ink for a cutie mark. In all, the teen-aged mare, an earth pony, was a little less than half of Phantom's size. She should be in school, Phantom thought, not in an alley like this. Another feature that he noted was her seemingly malnourished condition. He could just begin to see her ribs poking through her coat.

"Have you been out here with nothing to eat this entire time?" Phantom asked her.

She stopped in front of him. "Since the storm took my parents, yeah..."

"Well then... How do you feel about a doctor's visit, eh? To get checked out and make sure you're okay?"

"That'd be okay, I guess..."

"You guys still have a doctor, right?"

"We should. I saw her walk by this morning."

"Okay, that's good. Can you tell me where her office is?"

"Yeah, she's just up the road, outside of town."

"Alrighty then, let's go pay her a visit." Phantom turned so that his right half faced Quill, then lowered that side of his body and extended his right wing towards the ground like a ramp. "Wanna lift?"

A smile instantly formed on Quill's face as she perked up, her tail swaying back and forth.

"Are you sure it's okay?" she asked, taking a few hesitant steps towards him.

"I've carried ponies twice your size. Trust me, you won't be a problem. C'mon! It'll be fun!"

Quill ran forwards a few steps and jumped. Phantom adjusted himself accordingly so that she landed square on his back, with the same orientation as he.

"Wrap your arms around my neck," Phantom explained, "and hold on tightly!"

He extended his wings, giving them several powerful flaps and taking off into the air. The pegasus ascended rapidly high into the skies, much to the elated screams of the filly on his back.

"This is awesome!" he could hear her scream over the rushing wind.

Phantom slowed his speed and leveled off. When he craned his neck to see how Quill was doing, he saw that she was staring down at the ground. Several hundred feet below, Dodge Junction appeared even smaller than it had on the ground. A pony could easily fit the entire settlement into their vision from this altitude. If it were a town like Ponyville, they wouldn't.

"So which one is her office?" Phantom asked in a normal voice, noting having to yell over the rushing wind of high speed flying.

"Umm..." Quill looked down at the cluster of buildings, attempting to pick out the right one. "That one! I think." She was pointing towards a lone building separated from the rest of town on the north side.

"Hang on!"

"For wha—aahhh!"

Midway through her sentence, Phantom had tucked his wings in, allowing gravity to take over and pull him and Quill back down towards the ground at an ever accelerating speed. Before reaching the same level as the roofs of the buildings, Phantom snapped his wings open. He pulled up hard enough that Quill and he didn't crash into the ground, but at the same time soft enough so that the G-Forces didn't crush her.

The pegasus was zipping just a few feet above the ground, kicking up dirt and sand as he went. Quickly flying through the center of town, Phantom began slowing himself by banking slightly to one side so that his wings brushed up against the sand, then again to the other side. This increased his drag, and thus slowed his speed. Not too far from the office, Phantom flared his wings so that they were perpendicular to the ground, and lowered his legs, readying himself for a landing. Hooves on the ground, Phantom started by galloping, folding his wings in. He slowly brought himself to a trot, then a calm walk with only a few yards left to the door of the doctor's fofice.

"That was so cool!" Quill explaimed, sliding off of Phantom's back and landing on the sand. "A pegasus has never took my flying before. And it wasn't nearly as hot up there as it is down here. I actually started to get cold up there! How can you stand it?"

"With these," Phantom said, smiling and showing off his feathery wings. He brought them back into a resting position and approached the door, rapping on it sharply.

"Coming!" a mare's voice called from inside. A few patient moments later saw the front door opening, revealing a white unicorn mare with a red mane standing in the door way. On her flank, she had a big read heart as a cutie mark.

"Doctor Heartstrong!" Quill cheered, running forward and grappling the unicorn around the arms.

"Quill?" Doctor Heartstrong asked, looking down at the filly with wide eyes. "Sweet Celestia, what's happened to you? You're so thin!"

"I haven't exactly been eating very much..." Quill released her grip on the mare, suddenly finding interest on the ground below her.

"Well I can see that! But why?" Doctor Heartstrong seemingly just now noticed that Phantom was standing in front of her. Her eyes were drawn towards the Equestrian insignia on the front of his vest, along with his ranking chevrons. "Oh no, did something happen?"

"Is there someplace inside where we can talk?" Phantom asked.

"Why of course, right this way." Doctor Heartstrong left the door open and retreated back into the building, allowing quill to follow close behind. Phantom was the last inside, closing the door behind him.

He found himself in a reception room that had two small couches and a coffee table with a few magazines on top of it. Several posters were hung up along the walls, informing anypony who looked at them of various health facts, signs of sickness, etcetras. A smell of alcohol hung in the warm, musty air. The silence was broken routinely every second by the lone clock that hung on the far wall. A large rectangular hole was cut into one of the walls, serving as a secretary's window. Next to it, a door separated the lobby and what Phantom guessed was the examination rooms.

"I found her hiding in an alley," Phantom explained. He took off his tan hat and followed Doctor Heartstrong through the door next to the secretary's window. Quill was walking at her side. "She said she's been there since the storm struck."

"That's so terrible! Quill, where are your parents?" Doctor Heartstrong opened a door in the hallway, a label on it read 'Pediatrics'

It was a simple examination room, with a bed on one side, a scale, some chairs on the other side, cabinets filled with medical supplies, and toys strewn across the ground. Doctor Heartstrong used her magic to levitate some paper and quill and ink off a nearby counter and hand them to the filly, who had now jumped atop the bed, sitting down comfortably.

"The storm took them away..." Quill sighed, taking the paper and beginning to write something.

"Oh my..."

"You didn't know?" Phantom asked.

"I had a guess," Doctor Heartstrong said, using her magic to place a stethoscope around her neck. "I'm good friends with her parents, so we see each other a lot. When I didn't see them, or her, for awhile after the storm, I feared the worst. I just assumed that the storm got her along with her parents. I had no idea she was left behind... Quill, I am so, so sorry. If I had known—"

"It's okay, Miss Heartstrong," Quill interrupted the doctor, "I know you would have helped."

Doctor Heartstrong nodded, putting the stethoscope in her ears and pressing the device against Quill's chest, listening to the filly's heartbeat. After a few minutes, she stopped, putting the stethoscope back around her neck.

"She'll be fine," Doctor Heartstrong said with a smile. I'll get her something to eat here in a bit. Thank you for bringing her to me, Mister..."

"Oh, sorry," Phantom apologized, snapping his wondering attention back onto the unicorn. "Knight, ma'am, Phantom Knight. I'm a Staff Sergeant with the Royal Guard, sent here to investigate these storms."

"Well if you need anything, Mister Knight, just ask."

Phantom nodded. "Where can I find the Sheriff?"

Doctor Heartstrong sighed. "The storm took him on the first attack. It took all of my medical staff this last time..."

"Sorry to hear that. So who would be the prominent figure in this town?"

She thought for a moment. "I guess I would be? We're too small for a local government, so the Sheriff filled in. I certainly wouldn't think it would be the general store manager, or the bar tender. Hadn't really thought about it."

"Hmm... Do you know of any pony who would know a lot about these storms? Where the came from? How they seem to find these towns on their own? Things like that?"

"No, I don't think so... wait! Yeah, I know somepony. There's this old pegasus that I see from time to time. She lives by an oasis a few miles from town. Before the storms started, she came into town and warned everypony, but nopony listened. She sounded like she knew what she was talking about. Had this weird name for them..."

"Caligo?"

"That's it! From what I know about her, she was a worked in the old Cloudsdale factories."

"Thanks, that's a big help."

"Do you think you'll be able to find everypony? Save them?"

Phantom sighed. "I'll try my best."

"Well, for the sake of ponies like Quill here," she rubbed the filly's head with a hoof, "I hope so."

"Me too." Phantom looked at the clock on the wall. It was a quarter past two. "I best be going."

"Alright. Again, thanks for bringing Quill to me."

"No problem." Phantom turned and made his way out the door. In the hall way, he stopped and turned around, poking his head back through. "What'll happen to Quill, now?"

"She'll stay with me, probably. Not like there's any where else for her to go. Don't worry, she'll be fine."

"Alright, just wanted to be sure."

"See ya, Phantom!" Quill waved as the pegasus left for the second time. Before he reentered the lobby, he heard her tell Doctor Heartstrong, "You should have seen it! I got to ride on his back and he took me flying through the sky! I was just like a pegasus!"

Phantom smiled to himself, walking through the lobby of the office. Putting his tan hat back on, he stepped through the door of the relatively cool office and into the blistering desert sun.

"You'd make a good dad," a mare's voice said, catching him off guard. "Anypony ever tell you that?"

"Or a foal sitter, in the least" came another's.

Phantom jumped in his coat, all of his senses being brought to their full alertness. His wings instinctively flared out as Phantom brought himself to a quick hover above the building. In a stance that was drilled into muscle memory while at Royal Guard training, Phantom scanned the area for attackers. Instead of finding threats, he instead found two mares below him. Both were unicorns, one was mint green, and the other a soft blue.

"You've gotta be kidding me..." Phantom deadpanned, lowering himself for a soft vertices landing.

"Jumpy, much?" Lyra asked as Phantom landed, tucking his wings in.

Phantom looked at Lyra with a nonplussed expression before directing his attention to Minuette. "I thought I told you both to go to Canterlot."

"You did..." Minuette rubbed one hoof against the front of another. "We came here instead..."

"Speaking of which, how, and why, are you two here?"

"We snuck onto the train and followed you here."

"I'm not going anywhere without Bon Bon," Lyra said defiantly.

Realizing that there was no getting rid of the two mares, Phantom sighed. "Fine... you can come with me." Both Lyra and Minuette smiled, hoofbumping one another. "But, you have to follow my lead, and obey my orders, got it? Any sign of danger and you two are getting out before it can get to you. Deal?"

"Yup!" Minuette cheered.

"So where are we going first, Phantom?" Lyra asked, circling around to the other side of the pegasus.

"To find the mare you talked to earlier."

The next several hours found the ponies in the desert several miles north of Dodge Junction. The waning afternoon sun scorched the sand with its intense light.

"It's so hot!" Minuette groaned.

"Do you need another sip from my canteen?" Phantom offered from the front of the line.

Minuette approached from her position in the middle, trotting up beside the pegasus. The trio of ponies stopped as Phantom slid the canteen's strap over his neck, handing it to Minuette, who eagerly grabbed it in her magic and greedily drank from it. Meanwhile, Lyra stood in the back, seemingly unaffected by the heat.

"How do you do it?" Minuette panted, looking over to the mint green unicorn.

"You should really learn a temperature control spell," Lyra said. The unicorn's horn was dimly emitting a soft green light; the source of the faint aura that surrounded her body. Minuette had yet to develop a method for coping with the desert sun, citing that she spent most of her time in doors. Phantom, being a pegasus, was already susceptible to heat. And as a pegasus, he subconsciously let his wings droop into a relaxed state such that the tips of his primary feathers were dragging along the sand, creating their own lines in the dunes. This allowed what little air flow there was to be caught in his feathers, and thus cooling him off. Though he was still hot, he was hydrated, unlike Minuette.

"Thanks," she gasped, having just emptied the last of the water in the canteen.

"You're welcome..." Phantom replied, hesitantly taking the empty container back and sliding it back over his neck and arm so that it hung on the side of his vest. "I could have been there by now without you two, for the record."

"Well shut up," Lyra interrupted. "We're here."

The two other ponies followed to where Lyra's out stretched arm was pointing. About a hundred yards away was a highly appetizing oasis. Complete with a spring and palm trees. Off to the side, a small cabin had been set up. Artifacts transcribed with runes were scattered about.

Phantom was the first to begin walking towards it, with Lyra and Minuette side by side behind him. Going down the slight slope of the dune, the trio made it to the rural structure in no time. There was a spookiness that hung in the air around it, so Phantom was the only one to step hoof on the creaky porch. Just as he raised a hoof to rap on the door, it opened seemingly by itself.

"Hello?" asked a frail voice. Phantom focus his attention on the darkness inside to get a better of idea of who had spoken. A moment later, an old light gray coated pegasus mare stepped out. Even though her white mane seemed devoid of youth, her cobalt eyes did not. "I can tell that you seek something, and that I may have it."

"We do, ma'am," Phantom nodded. "I understand that you know this mare?" He stepped to the side and motioned towards Lyra, who sheepishly waved at the elderly pegasus.

"Ah... Yes, I do. You're the one I talked to after the last attack. What do you three younglings need?"

"Information," Minuette said, stepping up to the porch, "can you tell us about these storms?"

The elderly mare sighed. "There isn't much too tell..." she started limping towards a chair on the other side of the porch. Phantom quickly appeared by her side to help her to it, much to the mare's thanks. "It's been years since one of these Storms have appeared. So long that they disappeared from pony mythology. It is the Buffalo who would know more... They call it Caligo; fog."

"What is it, anyway?" Phantom asked.

"Caligo is a storm unlike any other. It appears to come from somewhere in the Badlands. The clouds are denser than any pony-made cloud and they seem to have their own consciousness. I do not know why, but they're drawn to ponies. Towns are more susceptible to attack than ranches. And no, I do not know why they take ponies in the first place. The Buffalo would have better answers to your questions."

"You wouldn't happen to know where we can find them, do you?"

She shook her head. "They wonder around the desert, not taking specific paths, staying in the same places at the same time of year. Usually, at least. There is, however, one place that I know of that they go to. But it is deep in the canyon, in the center of the Badlands. I do not know why they go there, just that they should be on their way there now. If you can find them, they should be able to tell you more..." The elderly mare stopped at the end of her sentence, her attention turning elsewhere from the ponies in front of her. She looked around with perked ears, seemingly sniffing the air.

"Is there something wrong?" Lyra asked.

The elderly pegasus sat in silence for a few more minutes. During that time, Phantom outstretched his wings to see if he could sense anything unusual in the air. Nothing.

"Caligo is returning..." she finally spoke up. "It is not safe for any of us. You must return home, and stay inside. The storm has trouble going through closed doors and windows; it is the only safe place."

"Thanks for the help," Phantom nodded, turning away and heading back down the steps of the porch. "Come on, if we hurry then maybe we can follow it back to where ever it goes."

"No!" Phantom stopped and turned around, facing the elderly mare. "You must return to your home. It is too dangerous to try to follow the storm... Caligo will find you out in the open. Promise me you will go home."

"I can't," Lyra said, putting herself between Phantom and the elderly mare. "That thing has my friend, and I'm going to get her back."

"That is a noble gesture," the mare said, standing and walking back towards her cabin door, "but your friend shall not return. No pony has. And neither will you three, unless you go. Home... Now. It is quickly approaching; there isn't much time."

With her words said, the unknown pegasus stepped through her door, shutting it behind her and leaving the three other ponies alone on her porch. A few awkward seconds passed before somepony did something else.

"So what now?" Minuette asked.

Phantom sighed, "As much as I don't like it, I feel like she knows what she's talking about. I don't know where she got all this knowledge, but we have nothing else to go on. If there truly is another storm coming, then we should heed her warning and go home."

"But Bon Bon!" Lyra interrupted.

"I know. But there's nothing we can do yet. If the storm comes for us, we need to be ready—"

"But!—"

"I will be able to learn more about the storm, and maybe even track which direction it goes in. We'll have a better place to start looking there than if we were roaming around aimlessly through the desert. Got it?"

Lyra sighed. "Fine..."

"Come on," Minuette said. "We'll go home, wait for it to pass, then go get Bon Bon back." She placed a hoof on her friend's back. "Alright?"

Lyra nodded. "Okay. Let's just go then..."

"Very well," Phantom acknowledged them. Turning away, he began to walk along the path back to Dodge Junction.

Minuette and Lyra fell into step beside him. The three ponies made their way up the dune and away from the oasis. At the top they took a brief break to get a view of the area around them, making sure that they were going in the right direction. Not all that difficult considering they could just follow their own tracks in the general direction back. The wind hadn't yet blown them away.

Just as Phantom took a step to continue forward, he froze in his place. Something incredibly cold was slowly running wrapping itself around his right fore-hoof. A thousand possibilities of what it could have been ran through his mind in a few seconds, the most prominent being that it was the storm. Too afraid to do something, the pegasus stood with wide eyes, waiting for it all to end.

Author's Note

Holy crap it's an update! Yes, that's right, an ACTUAL update! One that you can read and advance in the story! Not some silly blog post!

This chapter kind-of ran a little long than I wanted. The end with the elderly mare didn't quite turn out how I liked, and Quill took a bigger role than I had originally planned. But when I was writing the filly in... I just couldn't help but to fall in love with her. I'll be making definite sure she makes another appearance.

I'm still working on the Caligo mythology, and coming up with back stories for it to help explain it better for if the ponies run into characters who know more about the storms. If you guys have any ideas or inputs about the storms' history, I'd love to hear them.

So some of you may have seen a blog post I put out about this story going on a temporary hiatus. Well, it's a possibility. I have an idea behind Queen Nevei and how she became Queen Chrysalis, and how the Changelings came about. I had the idea for some time, around when I thought of Queen Nevei's character. I'll have to dig up some notes on what I came up with and see how far I can get in it. (I only intend for it to be a one-shot/short story, it won't replace this one)

Tell me what you guys think of the story! I haven't heard from y'all in some time so it'd be nice to get some feedback (I'm greedy). In all honesty, comments like Shadow of a Former Brony's here are awesome comments. Though they are all awesome. But still, ones with a lot of information or detail like that are awesome. Er.

PS. You guys should go check out the group I made for the Broken Feathers universe.

Thanks for reading!
- Sam.
Coming up next: Darkness takes over as more ponies disappear.

Sand...

A heavy haze hung in the air of the saloon. The only source of ventilation was from the cracked windows, and from the batwing door. The two story, rickety looking, wooden construct served as a saloon that could serve and entertain thirty to forty ponies on the first floor, and bed about ten on the second floor, not counting the two or three 'extra service' rooms. Cards were dealt across plank tables, usually to a hoof-full of ponies, who would then proceed to systematically lose their money before beginning a brawl that almost always ended up in several pieces of furniture being broken over the heads of the other players in the game. Quick paced music was played on the piano in an attempt to bring dance to the mind and joy to the hearts of ponies in the saloon. Though the music starkly contrasted since nearly everypony there was there just to drink themselves away, or were already in a happy stupor caused by booze.

The barpony was a white earth pony stallion with a gray mane, keeping orders and tabs in a pocket on his black vest, and wiping off empty sections of counters with a white rag that was otherwise kept around his neck. His honey colored eyes observed everything that occurred, and his swiveling ears heard all the rumors and whispers. If there was anypony to go to for news, it was Fill Up.

Not many ponies were at the bar itself; most were at the gambling tables since it was the early afternoon, thus not yet time to begin drinking the night away. The noon bell from the nearby clock tower was sounding, signaling the ponies to either leave church, or go out in search of a lunch.

Of the few ponies who were at the bar, one of them was a midnight blue pegasus with black accents on his hooves and muzzle. His primary feathers were also black. He possessed a black mane that turned to blue in the back, hanging down from his neck. His tail was primarily blue, with a black stripe that mimicked the shape of his overall tail running through the middle. On his flank sat the black pixilated form of a striking eagle. Fill Up had taken note of his particular coloring when he entered the saloon through the batwing doors, but otherwise paid him no extra attention. Like most who had come up to his bar, he had ordered a hard cider, and was pouring it himself from the bottle into shot glasses. Other than asking for a newspaper, he kept to himself, not paying mind to small number of ponies, and fights, around him. Fill Up gave him the paper, explaining that since Applelossa was small, they didn't have their own news paper. So instead they got there's on the weekly train from Ponyville. They did have a small news letter; a usually one or two paged billet attached to the side of the saloon with local gossip printed on it.

Phantom Knight, as he had introduced himself to Fill Up for the bar tab, sat in silence, looking through the newspaper, taking the occasional shot of hard cider. He paid careful attention to the front page in particular.

Such a waste of paper... he thought to himself, reading the final paragraph that detailed his 'disappearance.' This is what he came up with? The stallion he was referring to was none other than the Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard, Shining Armor. As apart of Phantom's assignment as a Staff Sergeant in the same Royal Guard, he had been sent to the desert town of Appleloosa to investigate a strange phenomenon that had been occurring. Thought he wasn't necessarily for him needing to be undercover. He didn't have any plans on lying to anypony about his name or most of his background; it was harder to keep track of lies than it was the truth. So the explicative in the paper about an airship crashing, that never actually crashed, in order to conceal his presence in a region on the complete other side of Equestria didn't make much sense to him. But, Shining Armor got his way.

The desert of all places, too. Sand... he sighed. I hate sand...

The saloon's batwing doors swung open, admitting another pony to the hazy establishment. For a brief moment, the music, the games, the drinking; everything, stopped as everypony (save for Phantom) looked to see who had entered. Barely a heartbeat had passed when everything had returned to normal. Fill Up moved up to a section of the bar in front of the stool next to Phantom, anticipating where the new pony would sit.

Phantom could hear somepony approaching, the sounds of their steps creating deep thuds on the old wooden floor. Soon enough, the pony sat on the stool next to him. She was a unicorn with a soft blue coat, a mane and tail of half cobalt blue and half white, deep blue eyes, and an hour glass cutie mark.

"What can I get you today, Minuette?" Fill Up asked, pulling out a notepad and pen to begin taking down her tab.

"The usual, Fill," she replied with a sweet voice. "Ginger ale."

She'd be a good dentist with that kind of voice, Phantom remarked, noting that she would probably be able to sooth any nerves with it. That and the comforting look of her eyes, any patient that would have come under her care would have felt right at home.

With Fill up pulling out a bottle of the requested drink and pouring it into a glass for her, Minuette glanced over at Phantom, whose attention was being occupied by page five of the paper.

"Excuse me," she began, "could I see the front page of that?" Phantom nodded once, pulling the front page from the collection of papers and sliding it across the bar to her. "Thanks."

The two ponies read in silence, taking the occasional sip of drink. The article that Phantom was reading talked about ponies mysteriously disappearing in the midsts of ominous storms that silently rolled into low population desert towns. Some houses and ranches had been discovered to be empty, presumably by the same force behind the ponies disappearing in the towns. Dodge Junction had been the hardest hit yet, with fifteen ponies disappearing in only two storms.

Eyewitnesses had described these storms as large black thunderhead looking clouds that skimmed across the ground like fog and blocked out the sun. They seemed to move under their own power and mind; an entity in of itself. Blue streaks of electricity were purported to criss cross its black surface. Long tendrils of solid clouds would run along the ground in front of it, grabbing hold of anypony who was standing out in the open. They would scream for help, but nopony would dare risk themselves to the storm. The only safe haven were buildings, hiding in places where they couldn't see the storm, and thus the storm couldn't see them. When the screaming ponies were sucked into the main cloud, they would go quiet, their voices silenced by the thick walls.

"It's terrible," Minuette said, "at least all these ponies were okay." She was referencing the front page news. The airship that never crashed, the ponies that were never in danger, and the reference of him. "I hope they find the one who's missing."

"A waste of paper," Phantom said bitterly, continuing to read on.

Minuette set the paper on the bar and looked over at him. "Sorry?"

Phantom mimicked her movements in setting the paper down. "It's a waste of paper. That story shouldn't be on the front page. This story," he tapped on the page he was reading, "should be."

"Yeah... it doesn't seem like anypony's really paying attention to what's going on. I think it's just because Appleloosa hasn't been hit yet."

"Yet?"

"It's bound to happen. It's already happened everywhere else, so it's just a matter of time before the storm finds its way here."

"Will you be ready for it?"

She nodded. "My boss has been building a shelter in the basement of the clock tower where I work. He hopes to make it large enough that anypony who's nearby outside will be able to take cover there."

"Hopefully it'll be done before the storm finds its way here."

"He's trying hard to. Basically left the clock tower under my care while he works almost nonstop on it."

"So you work there?"

"Sort-of... it's more of a paid apprenticeship, really. I've always had this fascination with the concept of time and measuring it. I got my cutie mark after I built my first clock. Growing up in the desert, there's not much to do. So when I heard that there was a spot open here at the clock tower, I took it, and became Chronos' apprentice. I basically maintain it, making sure it doesn't stop, that it's always on time, and that the bells ring at the appropriate times etceteras. What about you? What do you do?"

"Well, I'm a Guard."

Minuette perked up in her seat. "A guard? A Royal Guard?"

"Indeed. A Royal Guard."

"Yes!" She threw her arms into the air and spun around on the stool. After several rotations, Phantom extended a leg to the side to catch the seat in order to stop her when she faced him. He gave her a quizzical look. "Oh, sorry. Like I said, it's like no one has been paying attention to what's going on here. But now there's a Royal Guard here! You're here! Wait... if you're a guard, where's your armor at?"

"Ever worn forty pounds of uninsulated steel in the desert before?"

"No..."

"It's not very fun. We have a uniform exception in extreme environments and circumstances. Since this classifies as both, I can basically chose what I wear. But don't worry, I'll still have identification marks."

"I guess that makes sense..." She gave him a suspicious look. "What's your name?"

"My apologies, ma'am." He extended a hoof towards her. "Staff Sergeant Phantom Knight."

Minuette tilted her head to the side, only half-mindedly shaking his hoof. Remembering where she had heard that name before, her full attention turned back to the paper she had just read. She picked it up and read the last paragraph again, about the pony who had been missing. The name, and rank, matched.

"You're—" The unicorn stuttered, looking between the paper and the stallion next to her. "The paper— Missing— Wha— How?!"

"Simple. That article is false." Minuette raised an eyebrow. "It was a cover-up. My C.O. thought it best for me to be here undercover, for what ever reason, and set in motion for the creation of a fake news article to convince ponies that I was either dead or missing. Personally I told him it was a waste of paper. But for whatever reason he thought it was a good idea and went along with it."

"So if you're supposed to be undercover, why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because I don't think its necessary. I highly doubt that this storm has a conscious mind and will target me just because I'm a Guard."

"I guess that makes sense. So you're really here to help, right? You're going to try to find a way to stop the storm?"

Phantom took a shot of hard cider. "That's what the eighteen hour train ride was for. I'm here to find out what's causing it. Now whether or not I'll be able to stop it, well... I don't know. I'm actually here with a friend, and when I find out what's causing these storms, and what's happening to the ponies it's taking, she is to go straight to Canterlot and report the findings to Princess Celestia herself."

"She can stop the storms?"

"I can only hope so. More likely she will bring the Elements of Harmony and their bearers here to help."

"I see." Minuette took a sip of her own drink. "Well I wish the best of luck to ya."

"Heh, thanks. I'll need all the help that I can get. Speaking of which... What do you know about these storms?"

She sighed. "Not much really, sorry. Like I said, Appleloosa hasn't been hit yet, so I thankfully haven't experienced the storm yet. All I know is that it's eerily silent, and you can't see the two hooves in front of you. Sorry, but I don't know anything other than that. And those are just third-hoof accounts from ponies who made it through the storms. Again, sorry I couldn't help."

"It's alright; you still may be able to help: Do you know of anypony who was in a storm themselves?"

"No, I don—wait... Actually there is. She's a musician, a friend of mine. She said she had a performance a few days ago in Dodge Junction. It was hit by a storm the night she was supposed to arrive! Maybe she knows more?"

"Hopefully. Do you know where I can find her?"

"Yeah, she should be coming back on the one o'clock train. I was actually on my way there to meet her but decided to stop in here for a drink. I can show you there, if you'd like?"

"That'd be nice, just let me pay my tab." Phantom took one final shot of hard cider before reaching into the saddlebags that sat at the base of his stool. When he pulled out the bag of bits and asked the barkeep for the check, Fill Up shook his head.

"Guards drink for free," the barkeep said.

"You sure?" Phantom asked, hesitant at the stallion's hospitality.

"Hey, your guys' job is hard enough. Don't worry, it's on the house."

"Thanks."

"No worries."

Phantom climbed off of his seat, bending down to pick up his heavy saddlebags and slide them onto his back. There was a relatively considerable weight to them since they carried more gear than he would normally bring on a mission. But since he was the only pony who went on this mission, the supplies couldn't be spread out amongst him and his team. Once the bags were on his back, Phantom swayed to the sides slightly from the momentum.

"Those look pretty heavy..." Minuette observed. "Want me to carry some things?"

"It's fine. But it would be appreciated if we hurried so I didn't have to carry these for very long."

The mare pulled out a small black bag and set a few bits down on the counter for her drink. Putting it away, she too stepped off of her seat and walked up to Phantom.

"Come on," she said, using her sparkling blue magic to lift the bags up off of his back and carry them in the air. "You can set them in the clock tower while we're out."

"Well I don't want to be a hassle..."

"Don't think anything of it. We've got fifty minutes until the train arrives so we've got time to drop 'em off."

"If you say so."

Minuette led the way, with Phantom following close behind her as they stepped through the batwing doors of the saloon. They emerged out into a barely populated street. Most ponies had already arrived at their destinations in the small town after leaving Sunday church or their works to go to lunch or home. The two ponies had just stepped out of a two story, blue painted building, one of the only multi-story buildings in the town. The only things that were bigger were the cliffs that were to Phantom's left, and the tall, red clock tower that was also to his left, but only a few buildings away. The tower seemed to be built into the corner of a two story building, with a porch leading up to a door in the center, and a pair of windows on either side. Overall it was a fairly small town, only a few hundred ponies. And that was with the recent influx of ponies due to a gold strike in the nearby hills.

The landscape of the area was rather dull. Dry, compacted tan dirt and sand made up the surface of the ground. Small, stiff bushes were scattered about in the areas where ponies didn't necessarily travel all that much, waiting for a gust of wind to swoop in and turn them into tumbleweed. The occasional prickly cactus rose up several feet in the air outside of town. The only significant amount of a greenery was that of the apple orchards over on the other side of the train tracks. The station for those train tracks was only a few buildings to Phantom's right, sitting at the tip of the road.

"You know... I can literally see the station right now..." Phantom said. "You don't really have to walk me there."

Minuette continued to head towards the clock tower, which was in the opposite direction. Phantom lumbered up from behind her.

"Yes, I know," she said, "but I refuse to let you slug that gear around with you all day. Besides, you don't even know what she looks like."

"I guess you're right."

"Of course I am."

The two ponies stepped up onto the porch of the red building, shielded from the hot desert sun by the wooden awning over their heads. Minuette turned the knob on the unlocked door and pushed it open, allowing for Phantom to enter the building before her. It was a medium sized wooden room with a few desks, chairs, and paintings. On the back wall was a picture of what appeared to be the clock tower when it was being constructed, only half way completed. Phantom had been expecting to hear the ticking coming from the large clock several stories above them. But the only ticking he heard was that of a small cuckoo clock on the wall next to him.

"That's a quiet clock," Phantom remarked when Minuette entered the room. As he stood in the center to examine his surroundings, she walked past him towards the desk in the back in the room, which was apparently hers. There, she set his saddlebags down on top of the wooden piece of furniture.

"Heh, yeah. When I rebuilt it awhile ago I decided to make it a little quieter since this is where I actually live."

"Rebuilt?"

"About a year and a half ago there was this fight between the settlers her in Appleloosa and the local Buffalo tribe. Basically we had planted trees on their traditional stampeding grounds. Things came to a tipping point and the Buffalo charged the town. During the fight, one of the Buffalo crashed into the side of the building and sent a crack running up the tower wall. I got out just before it the entire thing came crashing down into the street. We managed to salvage some of the pieces to reconstruct the tower, but the clock mechanisms were completely destroyed. So I rebuilt it and made it quieter. That way I could actually sleep here for once."

"You built the entire thing yourself?"

"Well... Cronos, my boss, ordered the pieces. But yeah, I put them together. Oh! Do you want to see it?"

With that kind of a gleam in her eye, how could he refuse? It was a gleam of pride. The same gleam a foal would have after they won first prize at a talent show. One that would be in the eye of a pony who had just passed a major test in their life. It was the same gleam that Phantom had after he had earned his shield upon completing Royal Guard hoofcamp.

"Sure. Why not?"

Minuette smiled and stepped behind her desk. Using her magic, she pulled a set of keys out from a drawer. The mare stepped up to the door that led into the clock tower and used them to unlock the knob. The door swung open, and Phantom could hear the very soft ticking coming from the mechanisms above. A stair case rose up, braced up agains the wall and spiraling in a clockwise direction. It went up three stories before reaching a wooden ceiling with a trap door in it. A central gear system sat in the center at the base of the tower, with four separate sets of gears branching out and running up along the walls, presumably to the individual clocks high above.

"That's..." Phantom was at a loss.

"Complex?" The two ponies stepped into the room, allowing Phantom a better look.

"Yeah... this is... really complex. This must have been really difficult."

"Nah, not really."

Minuette started walking up the stairs. Since there wasn't enough room for both of the on the wooden planks, Phantom hovered next to her as the blue mare ascended. In less than a minute, the two ponies had reached the trap door. Minuette used the keys that she had brought with her to unlock it, and entered first with Phantom close behind. He landed on the wooden floor next to her and looked around.

The room was lit by ambient light that shone through the frosted glass of the clock windows. Several sets of shadows were created by the clock's black hands criss crossed the room, creating interesting and intricate shapes. Though the thing that caught the pegasus' eye the most was the bell that hung in the center of the steeple above their heads. He could easily fit inside of it, and it was coated in a bright gold paint that almost added extra illumination to the room. All along its sides were a series of hieroglyphics that depicted what appeared to be the founding of Appleloosa, starting from the first settler ponies to arrive in the area and plant the first flag, all the way up to the story Minuette told about the Buffalo tribe, finally ending with the bell being hoisted into the tower.

"Made from the copper and tin mined out the same mountains and hills around this town," Minuette said, her eyes just as transfixed on it as Phantom's were. "Finally just got her a few weeks ago. It was a bit of a hassle installing the thing, to be quiet honest... we almost dropped it thrice."

"It's beautiful." The two stood and admired the bell for awhile long.

"We should go."

"Yup."

The two ponies made their way back down stairs. Minuette locked the doors behind her, making sure that no pony would be able to get in and harm themselves, or the delicate equipment stored there. Back in the main room, Phantom stopped at his saddlebags and set them on the floor. He dug through them for a moment and eventually pulled out a tan vest, lined with several cargo pockets along the front and side. On the front left corner of the tan vest was the Equestrian insignia, the same as the one on the sash of his formal uniform. Phantom explained that if he were going to be operating on an official basis, he might as well have some kind of Royal marking on him to prove that he was, in fact, a Royal Guard. Along with it, he wore a tan boonie hat to help shield him from the sun.

On their way out, Minuette picked up a white hooded cloak from the coat rack and put it on, pulling up the hood for extra shade. Since the train station was only a few buildings away, it didn't take too long for the two ponies to arrive there. Everything they had accomplished, they had accomplished before twelve thirty in the afternoon. The train was set to arrive in a half hour, which left Phantom and Minuette with little to do but stand in the warm shade and wait.

During that time, Minuette had gone and sat herself down on a bench, propping her head up against a hoof. Phantom had merely stood in his original spot on the platform, mimicking the same movements as a statue. The happy-looking pink train had arrived. Its five cars were lined up beside the wooden platform and their doors opened. Not many ponies were aboard, though who could blame them? It was a desert. Not many ponies took vacations here. Usually the only ones who were using these trains were traveling between desert towns and wanted to use the comfort, convenience, and speed of a train, so they weren't stuck in a carriage for days.

Minuette rose from her spot and stood next to Phantom. "Here she comes," she said, nodding towards the third car in the line. From within it emerged a mint green unicorn with a pale green and white mane. Her eyes were a burned golden color, and a lyre sat on her flank. "Hey, Lyra!" Minuette waved at the mare.

The mare known as Lyra was primarily directing her gaze at the ground, satisfying a curiosity of how many cracks there was in the flooring. She only looked up for a brief moment to see where the voice calling her name was coming from. When she saw Minuette waving at her, she forced a smile before looking back down at the wooden planks and began walking towards the two ponies.

"Lyra, is there something wrong?" Minuette asked when the other mare got close, observing her dejected manner.

"Min... It—It..." Lyra was stumbling over her or words. She took a moment to gather a strength and to suck up a tear. "The storm... it took Bon Bon." She collapsed into the arms of the blue mare in front of her, burring her face in the other's neck and crying. Phantom shifted in his place, growing uncomfortable by the developing situation and the gazes coming from the ponies around. To move them along, he made sure that they saw the Equestrian insignia on the front of his vest.

"Oh no..." Minuette embraced Lyra tightly. "I'm so, so very sorry. I had no idea... Come on, let's get you back to the tower for some tea." She wrapped a hoof around her friend's back, and the pair began heading off towards the clock tower trailed closely behind by Phantom.

"Who's this?" Lyra asked as they continued to go on, referring to the midnight blue pony following behind them.

"Phantom Knight, ma'am," the stallion introduced himself with a tip of his hat.

"He's a Royal Guard," Minuette explained. "He's here to find out what's causing the storms."

"You're going to help us?" Lyra was practically pleading with him instead of asking. "You're going to find Bon Bon?"

"I'll try," Phantom replied. The trio of ponies arrived at the clock tower, and Phantom held the door open so that the two mares could enter first before softly closing it behind him. Minuette guided Lyra to a soft looking chair in front of her desk and said she'd be right back, then proceeded to go to what he guessed was a small employee's kitchen in the back of the building. After a few moments, Phantom could smell warm tea.

Minuette quickly emerged from the kitchen, carrying in her magic a silver platter and three steaming cups. She set it down on the desk and placed a cup in front of Phantom, who had taken a seat in another chair next to Lyra, in front of Lyra, and in front of her own seat on the other side of the desk.

"I can't believe it took Bon Bon..." Lyra mumbled, looking down at the cup of tea that she was holding i her magic. Minuette had already taken a drink and Phantom was waiting for his to cool off before he picked it up. "You'll be able to get her back," she said, looking up at Phantom who had now taken off his tan boonie hat and set it on the desk, "right?"

He sighed. "Again, I'll try. But I don't know anything about this storm. That's what I'm hear for; to figure this thing out. And frankly, I'll need all the help I can get."

"Lyra, I know that it'll be hard, but you need to tell us what happened." Minuette moved her chair so that she was next to to the mint green mare. She wrapped a supported arm around her friend for comfort. "Can you do that?"

"I don't want to..." Lyra sniffed. "I don't want to remember."

"It could possibly help us find your friend," Phantom took a sip of tea and leaned in. "Maybe even find all of the other ponies this thing as taken, and prevent it from happening again. Lyra, the Royal Guard, I, can't do anything without information about what's going on. Right now I'm the expert on these storms, and I know nothing about them. Can you help us?"

She took several deep breaths.

"I'm right here for you Lyra," Minuette encouraged. "I'll be right here. You can stop at any time."

A few more breaths.

"Take it at your own pace, Lyra," Phantom said. He reached into one of the front pockets on his vest and pulled out a small pocket notebook and pen. Flipping through many filled pages, he stopped when he got to the first blank one and grasped the pin in the primaries of his right wing, clicking down the top of it. "Can you start from the beginning?"

One final big breath.

"Bon Bon and I had taken the train to Dodge Junction from Ponyville, where we live," Lyra explained. "They were having some kind of a function there and I was set to be one of the performances. Bon Bon went down with me as support, and also so that she could sell her confectionaries..."

Author's Note

To those newcomers to my writing: Welcome! I hope that you all stay and enjoy what I bring to these pages.
To those returning from my other stories: Welcome back! I hope that this one continues to bring you the same of what you enjoyed in the others.

But yes, this is the first chapter of my new story Broken Feathers: Desert Storm. I was hoping for a slightly longer chapter than this to start things out with, but hey, what happens happens. Hopefully I'll get above at least 4,000 words per chapter, but like with my other stories I won't update until I hit at least 3,000 words. While we're on the topic of story length, good news everyone! My ship date for the Marine Corps has been pushed back until August; that gives me three extra months to hopefully write in this story.

Unlike my other stories, I've actually semi-planned this one out and have a fair idea of where I'm going with it. However, I don't know how long it'll take to get there, nor how long that journey will be in general. I do hope it is a fun one though; I've got some ideas I'd really love to see play out in this story.

Criticism is highly appreciated, especially since we're so early into the story. You guys can find my errors, make predictions, and overal tell me what you think of the story so that I can adjust accordingly! Thanks for reading!
- Sam.

p.s., I'm on the side that her name is Minuette, not Colgate, if you couldn't figure that out. She has an hour glass cutie mark, not a tooth brush. Be happy I at least gave her that thought that she would be a good dentist to appease those of you on that side of the fight.

p.p.s., I'm terrible at describing things, particularly how they look, so for those of you who are reading this story and haven't read my others and don't really know what Phantom looks like, here's the gist of it:

Phantom Knight (in formal uniform):

Maybe I'll do one of him wearing the tan vest and boonie hat that I had been mentioning in this chapter... Now there's an idea... Anyway, moving on.

Coming up next in Broken Feathers: Desert Storm: The Clouds Are Alive...

When the Stars Disappear

Why are you just standing there? Fear gave way to reaction as Phantom's wings snapped open, allowing him to shoot straight up, leaving behind a cloud of sand that streaked up after him.

Phantom flared his wings to bring his rapid ascent to a hover. he turned around, fully prepared to fight in any way against the black wall cloud that was waiting behind him. Only there wasn't one. The skies were perfectly clear; not even a white, puffy, pegasus made cloud was to be seen. A series of noises caught the attention of his hears. Recognizing it as laughter, he looked down. Both Lyra and Minuette were rolling on their backs in the sand, completely unable to control themselves. Bearing a deadpan look, Phantom made the slow descent towards them.

"You should have seen your face!" Lyra managed to sputter out. "Oh Celestia that was priceless!"

"Care to explain the joke?" Phantom was fuming.

The two mares managed to control themselves just long enough to tell him.

"That wasn't the storm you felt wrapping around your leg," Lyra wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.

"It was a snake!" Minuette pointed at the sand next to the stallion before she and Lyra broke down into another fit of laughter.

Phantom glanced over to where she had indicated. There, a long, black snake slithered up to his left hoof, rubbing against it as it it were an affectionate cat. The snake lifted its head at him, and appeared to smile. Phantom squinted his eyes, growling, baring his teeth. With a flick of his hoof, the snake was sent flying over the opposite side of the dune. His action only seemed to exasperated the mares' laughter.

"I'll leave you two behind..." Phantom grumbled.

"Okay, okay," Minuette stood up, trying to calm herself down, "we'll stop." She went over to Lyra and extended a hoof to help her friend stand up. Both mares shook the sand off of their coats.

"I'm sorry," Lyra apologized as the trio continued onwards back to Dodge Junction. "It's just that this big bad guard who's supposed to be protecting the desert was scared senseless by a tiny little snake."

"You would have reacted the same way," Phantom countered. "In fact, isn't that how you did react?" Lyra physically recoiled at his words. Seeing the pained look in her eyes, he tried to set things straight. "Sorry... That was too far. I—"

"It's alright. You didn't mean it like that. Let's... Let's just go."

Phantom nodded and continued to lead the two other ponies out of the desert, following their original tracks. An hour and several rest stops passed in silence before somepony broke down with boredom.

"I spy with my little eye..." Minuette led on, restarting the same game she had attempted to get the others to play along with on the first trio, "something... tan."

"Sand," Phantom and Lyra replied in unison.

"Dang! You two are too good at this. Umm... I spy with my little eye... something... blue!"

"The sky."

"Dang. How'd you know?"

"You've been picking the same colors the entire time: Tan, sand; blue, the sky. On top of that, you haven't been picking anypony specifically," Lyra explained.

"Oh..." Minuette lowered her head for a moment. Then, an idea came to mind that made it perk right back up. "I spy with my little eye... something... green!"

"Me."

"What? Ju-How?"

"I'm the only thing that's green... We're in a desert..."

"Grr. I spy with my little eye, something dark blue!"

Phantom craned his neck around to look at her, continuing to walk forward. Her goofy smile didn't falter, waiting for him to guess.

"Seriously? he asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Do I really have to?" She nodded furiously. "Ugh... Me."

Minuette's smile disappeared, her face turning to an expression of annoyance. "I don't like you anymore..."

Phantom rolled his eyes, turning his attention forward. Several minutes of peaceful silenced past before...

"I spy with my little eye, something blue!"

"Minuette..." The other two sighed.

"Hey! How'd you know?"

Lyra opened her mouth to explain, but gave up almost instantly. "Nevermind."

Several hours later, the ponies arrived back in Appleloosa, feeling as though their trip had been an utter waste. Bon Bon was still missing, along with everypony else, and Phantom was no closer to understanding the Caligo phenomenon.

"I'm beginning to think that it was a mistake coming back here..." Phantom lamented as he and the two other mares stepped inside the clock tower office. He set his hat on the hanger by the door, unzipped the front of his vest and threw himself into a chair while letting out a relieved sigh.

Lyra merely sat down at a nearby desk, burying her head in her hooves. Minuette whispered what Phantom assumed was a comforting series of words to her before slowly pacing across the room.

"She was probably bluffing in order to get us to leave," Minuette surmised.

Phantom nodded. On the train ride back, his eyes had been glued to the skies. Nothing had appeared out of place. There were no changes in air pressure that he could sense. For being an unfamiliar desert, everything seemed to be normal as far as he could tell.

"Or throwing us off the train because she's in on it," Lyra prompted with a muffled voice.

"Now we can't just go suspecting everypony, Lyra. It's not reasonable."

"But still wise," Phantom chimed in. "Once you stop suspecting somepony, then you'll start missing evidence that they leave behind.

"So you think we did this?" Lyra asked, picking her head up, looking as though she had been offended. Which she had.

"No," Phantom stood up, "but I leave it as a possibility."

"What if we think you are behind this?"

"Then that is your choice. However, you will find no evidence to support your suspicion."

"What do we do now?" Minuette spoke up after a brief silence. Wait for a storm that isn't coming?"

To this, Phantom shrugged. "I won't ask you two to turn around and make another train ride out there, so I guess we'll stay here fore the night."

"Okay. That'll give us, well probably you, time to come up with a plan."

"I already have one. Two, actually."

"And..." the two mares drew out.

"Head out tomorrow and find the Buffalo tribe. If they really do know more about Caligo than any pony, then they'll be of great help."

"Assuming they're even willing to help," Lyra said.

"Correct. Secondly, I want to put myself in the path of this storm. When it strikes, I'll follow it back to where ever it goes as far and long as I can."

"Assuming you're not one of the ponies it takes."

"Also correct. Then again, if it does take me, I guess my plan worked better than I expect."

The bells high in the tower rang out across the desert, signalling the arrival of six pm. With it being supper time, the ponies were ready for some food.

Phantom sat at the table with a stack of documents that he had had retrieved from his bags. They were incident reports that had been filed by local law officials. Witness statements. Missing pony reports. Photographs of the scenes. Anything that was available to him to get his hooves on when he got the assignment. Lyra sat across from him, watching what he did intently. When Phantom opened up a new file, the first thing that was visible was the cut out front page of a news paper story detailing what had happened at Dodge Junction. Seeing this, Lyra perked up. Phantom watched her in the field of his vision. he closed the cover on the folder and moved onto the next, one that was a report taken by a fellow Royal Guard about a month ago detailing the disappearance of a rancher and his family out in the desert.

Not too long after, Minuette came back from the kitchen with their supper. Quickly, it was devoured by the ponies. What followed was Minuette and Lyra sitting idly by as Phantom continued through the rest of the files. To quell their interest, he allowed them to look through what he had already read. As time went on, and darkness fell, Phantom read the last one, alone, under the only shining light in the building. Everypony in town had gone to bed. Minuette disappeared while Lyra had passed out on the couch in the main lobby.

With the file finally shut and stacked with the rest, Phantom stood up, shutting off the light. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust. Once they did, he proceeded to head for the clock tower stairs. Instead of flying up the shaft to the loft at the top, Phantom stopped to face a door that was about halfway up. Curious as to what was on the other side, the pegasus warily approached, landing on a small platform just before it. To his surprise, it was unlocked. Despite this, cob webs were surrounding the lock. It took a few tries and some power, but he managed to push the door open on its stiff hinges with his shoulder.

Phantom was greeted by the cold desert air on the other side. One thing that he could never understand was how someplace that was so hot during the day, seemed so cold during the night. Though there was one thing, and one thing only, that he enjoyed deserts for: the night skies. Millions, perhaps billions of stars were open to his gaze. Stars that he couldn't see in the cities because of light pollution. Even Cloudsdale offered a sub-par view of them. In the forests, trees got in the way. In the grassy plains, there was always some settlement in the distance it seemed that put off light. The mountains were an okay alternative, but usually you're so high that instead of seeing the lights from one town, you'd see them from multiple towns. The only place that Phantom enjoyed star gazing from more than the desert was the northern tundras beyond Vanhoover. Someponies would argue that the aurora borealis would get in the way, but Phantom thought that they only added to the beauty. The northern lights, as they were more commonly called, would shine brightly in his vision, lighting the snowy canvass below them with their blues, greens, and purples. Backlit by the brightest stars he had ever seen, constellations and galaxies whose names he had long since forgotten, only added to the display. They were something that captivated him ever since he first saw them as a young foal in Cloudsdale one night on a rare occurance that their colorful arms reached that far south. If that night sky wasn't an option to him, then the one he was looking at now would be an immediate second. A tight-knit cluster of dim stars stretched across the sky above. Even though it wasn't as bright as it would have been up north, it still awed him to think that this was the galaxy he lived in. If he paid attention to only the crisp air and the stars, then he could easily imagine he was in a snowy tundra.

Except he wasn't. He was in the middle of a desert. On a mission with unknown danger. A threat that lurked beyond every horizon. And there was sand in his feathers.

Gah! I hate sand!

Phantom fell back onto his haunches, awkwardly containing himself so that his head was able to reach his extended left wing. Grains of sand had mate its way deep into his feathers and were now causing an incredibly annoying itch. He gnawed at the affected spots. Small groups of sand fell him his dark feathers onto the roof.

This is what I get for having feathers, eh?

Relief was finally brought to his left wing as the final bits of sand fell from his left wing. Now all that was left was the tedious process of reorganizing his feathers so that they retained aerodynamic efficiency. During the process, Phantom bent as far over as he could with his neck and head so that he could reach a water-proof chemical producing gland at the base of his wing. Trying to get to the gland put him at such an awkward angle that he nearly fell over several times. It took several minutes for the process to be completed. Once it was, Phantom sat back up right, wiping the excess water-proofing chemical off of his mouth onto his arm.

Then his right wing started to itch.

Phantom outstretched his right wing in order to repeat the previous process. Midway through preening his feathers after finally digging the sand out of them, a noise caused his ears to perk up. Phantom froze in his awkward position, waiting to hear the sound again. After a few seconds he happened to look up. Minuette stood in the doorway with her head tilted to the side and quirked an eyebrow. With his head still practically buried in his wing, Phantom remained motionless as he stared back at her.

"Hey?" Minuette hesitantly said, shifting her stance.

"Uh," Phantom wasn't quite sure on what to do. He hadn't expected anypony to follow him up there. And how long has she even been there before he noticed her? "Hey..."

"So... what's up?"

"Oh you know. Just... Just preening my feathers. Sand got in them."

"I can see. What now?"

Phantom could tell that this was just as awkward for her as it was for him.

"This is the part were you leave for a moment."

"Maybe I could—"

"Now."

"Okay, okay."

Minuette quickly retreated back into the clock tower. Phantom put his feathers back into place, making sure that they were aerodynamically correct. Then he applied a small layer of water-proofing to them. Not like there's much of a need for this here anyway. Wiping away the excess, Phantom called for Minuette, who he could hear shuffling around behind the door.

"You're good now," he said. Straightening himself up and putting his wings flush against his body, Phantom watched as the door knob turned, preceding Minuette's emergence. "Sorry you saw that," he continued.

"It's my fault for sneaking up on you in the first place," she replied, walking up beside him. "I take it that that wasn't something for my eyes then, huh?"

"Nothing against you, but no. For the most part pegasi don't like having other ponies around them when they preen. Unless it's someone close to them. Preening leaves us vulnerable to predators, or at least it did when we had predators. Normally I would have done it on a cloud, but..." the two ponies looked around the cloudless sky, "yeah..."

"Well again, I'm sorry. Haven't really been around pegasi much."

"It's understandable. We don't like discussing our preening or molting cycles much."

"You molt, too?"

"We have feathers, so yeah."

"What's it like?"

"A word of advise: Don't be around a pegasus when they're molting. They can't fly, so odds are they'll be in a terrible mood."

"Ah. So when's the next time you'll—"

"I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"Okay, okay!"

The pair sat on the roof for a few silent moments, both with their eyes on the sky.

"I would watch them all the time as a foal too, you know," Minuette said. Phantom tilted his head towards her, giving her a questioning look. "That look in your eye is the same I had," she explained. Phantom nodded, clearly lost in memory. Leaving it at that, Minuette redirected her focus at the night sky. A sudden cold chill raised the hairs on her back and she started to shiver.

Phantom noticed through the corner of his eye. Home come I always end up doing this? He extended his right wing, draping it over Minuette's back.

"Thanks," she said as he pulled her in closer. Warmth surrounded her as she was nearly engulfed in feathers. Her felt heavy as a result of an increase in melatonin. Feeling as if her arms were about to give out from under her, she leaded against Phantom for support. An action she didn't realize caused him a fair amount of discomfort. "So, you do this for all the mares?"

She's making it worse... he sighed to himself. "Just the ones that get cold." That was so lame...

"Why aren't you cold?"

"I have feathers, remember?"

"Oh yeah..."

"Believe me, it can get pretty cold at high altitudes."

"I'll bet." Minuette waited a bit before her next question.

"So is there another mare?"

"It's sort-of complicated, so I'll leave it at that."

"Fair enough." Feeling as though she overstepped her boundaries, Minuette immediately backed off. Her attention quickly went back to the stars. Some of which had apparently disappeared while her focus was elsewhere. Interestingly enough, they were all in the same part of the sky, along the edges of the clock tower. If she hadn't looked that far backwards, then she wouldn't have noticed it at all. Slowly, more stars began to fade away. "You seeing that?"

"Seeing what?"

"The stars blacking out."

"What?"

"Look!" She broke out of the feather-y cocoon and grabbed onto Phantom's head with both hooves, directing his gaze at the anomaly.

"Well I guess they could be clouds..." Phantom reasoned. As if the gods themselves were trying to prove him wrong, a streak of blue lightning zipped along the belly of the darkness, illuminating the blackest clouds Phantom had ever seen. The hearts of both ponies dropped simultaneously. A small crackle of thunder reverberated throughout the desert. Electricity permeated through the air, raising the hairs on the backs of everypony's neck.

"Everypony's inside," Phantom reassured Minuette. "They'll be safe there."

On cue, a second bolt of electricity reached from the clouds and struck between the two ponies and the clock tower, creating a pony-sized hole of chard wood that led to the lobby.

"Or maybe not as safe as I had hoped."

Black tendrils of cloud wrapped themselves around the clock tower, covering the door and blocking their primary means of escape. The tendrils buzzed like the electrical power lines of bigger cities, slithering slowly towards Phantom and Minuette.

"Now where do we go?" Minuette asked, taking a few steps back so that Phantom was in front of her.

Phantom looked around. Aided by the moon light, he could see that more tendrils were slithering there way along adjacent streets and buildings. Not going that way, then, he cursed to himself. Blue sparks leaping across the tendrils in front of him reminded him that he needed to hurry. "This way!"

"Which way—AAY!" before her question was completed, Phantom reached back and grabbed hold of her, pushing her forward and down the recently created hole in the roof, following quickly behind her. The tendrils reacted to the rapid movement, striking fast. The missed by only a few inches, leaving behind black scortch marks on the roofing.

Minuette and Phantom landed on top of one another in a pile of blue on top of the kitched table, breaking it in half.

"I think there are splinters in my back," Minuette groaned, having taken the brung of the impact.

"We need to keep moving," Phantom urged, scrambling to get off of the unicorn. Above them, the tendrils were ripping away at the roof so that even more tendrils could fit into the building.

"What the hay is going on in here?" Lyra stepped into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Once her vision was cleared, she saw what was breaking into the building. "Horse apples..."

Phantom helped Minuette onto her hooves, pulling her beside him as he ran over to Lyra.

"I thought that they couldn't get inside," Minuette said.

"Apparently it's evolving," Phantom replied. "Come on, we need to get the buck out of here." He ran towards the door, not bothering to take the time to unlock, or to even check to see if the door was already unlocked, and broke through it with his shoulder. Minuette and Lyra were following close behind him.

The trio found themselves standing in the middle of the street, surrounded by tendrils.

"Grab on!" Phantom ordered the two mares. He flared his wings and held out his arms for them to grab onto. Giving several powerful flaps, a cloud of dust was kicked up around them. It took all his effort, but Phantom was finally able to gain some altitude, rising above the slithering black tendrils. Phantom strained to lift the pair to the same height as the roofs around them.

"Behind you!" Minuette warned.

Phantom looked over his shoulder just in time to see the main cloud approaching him. It lashed out with another streak of blue lightning, seeming to try to knock him out of the sky. He banked to the left, tucking his right wing in so that the bolt would miss it. With only his left wing providing lift, he nearly rolled completely to the right before he managed to extend his other wing and stabilize himself. Though he inadvertently sent himself on a collision course with the nearby saloon. Phantom turned as hard to the left as he could, practically throwing the two mares to the side. Where they landed in the sand between the saloon and another building, Phantom clipped the side of the saloon with his wing. He spiraled out of control, creating a trench in the sand where he landed next to the mares.

"Phantom!" Lyra sat, watching the crash. She picked herself up from the sand and ran over towards his limp form on the ground. With Minuette arriving shortly after she did, the two mares worked to help him up.

"I'm okay," Phantom mumbled in his daze. "I swear that I'm okay." He took one glance at the wing that struck the building. His right one, covered in splinters that dribbled blood at their puncture points. The same one that I broke last time, too, he sighed. "That's gonna hurt later on."

A scream captured the attention of the three ponies in the alley. They each turned to look in the street. The storm had pushed further into the town, its tendrils breaking past doors and windows to gain entry into shops and homes where ponies had been hiding. One of the tendrils had found its mark, a brown earth pony mare being dragged across the sand, clawing at anything she could in order to keep from being dragged further back. She was only feet away from the cloud's edge.

Phantom leapt into action, planting his hooves in the ground and flaring his wings. He flapped them once after leaning back and pushing himself forward, giving himself a powerful takeoff. A trail of sand followed him in the air as his hooves skimmed along the ground, not bothering to waste any of his momentum on gaining altitude. The short distance was covered in hardly any time at all. He turned his wings so that they were perpendicular to the ground, bringing him to an almost immediate halt behind the mare. Phantom landed on top of the black tendril, bucking it furiously. A high pitched screech accompanied the tendril letting go of the mare's leg, with it apparently writhing in pain back and forth.

Not allowing the tendril a chance to grab onto the mare again, or him, Phantom picked her up, flying her over to the other end of the street. Ignoring her thanks he set back out for the alley where he left Minuette and Lyra behind. Arriving, both of them where gone. A series of drag marks started midway down the alley and trailed out to the center of the street where the storm had now advanced over. Its black walls blocked off the alley's entrance, leaving him with only two directions of escape. Turning around to run out the back exit to the alley, Phantom discovered that it too was blocked by a cloud. He looked up in the hopes that he wasn't completely surrounded in the trap. To his luck, the skies were clear for now.

He took advantage of the opening and quickly flew up and out of the alley, rolling onto his back and pulling himself towards the train station on the opposite side of town as the storm. It seemed like other ponies had the same idea and were taking cover there as well. They were huddling in the offices, boarding up the windows with anything they could find. Phantom was nearly dragged inside by them when he landed in front of the door. He looked around them room. Most mares were together, holding the foals, as far from the windows as they could get; while the stallions took up arms with what ever make-shift weapons that they could get their hooves on. Most of them had an expression of fear, while others were too shocked to show any emotion. The foals trembled in their parents' arms.

If he were to guess, Phantom would say that this was less than half of the town's population.

"How many are missing so far?" Phantom dared to ask, not necessarily wanting to hear the answer.

"This is everypony..." one of the stallions said with a steady voice. A sheriff's deputy, if his badge was anything to tell by.

"The town has been nearly covered by now," another stallion said. "I don't know how anypony else will escape."

"And how will we escape?" a mare asked nervously. "We've cornered ourselves in here."

"We'll figure something out," Phantom reassured them. "This storm has to have a weakness. Every storm does. Has anypony here made it through one of these attacks before?"

Everypony hesitantly looked around, shifting about. Well there goes that chance for help... Phantom resigned to himself, bowing his head.

It perked back up when he heard a mare's voice say, "I have." From within the crowd of mares, a white unicorn stepped out, pushing her red mane to the side to reveal her face better. "I made it through the one in Dodge Junction."

"Doctor Heartstrong?" Phantom walked towards her. "What... what are you doing here? Never mind. The storm. Do you remember what triggered it to leave?"

"Sorry... I wish I could be of more help. It just kind-of... left."

"On its own accord?"

"It looked that way to me. I watched it from a dune outside of town. One moment it was going through town, taking anypony who was unfortunate enough to be out in the open, the next it stopped and turned back the way it came. Dunno why... it just did."

"Hm. As morbid as it sounds, maybe it had consumed as many ponies as it could..."

"Sorry to break your train of thought," the sheriff's deputy said, "but somepony's still out there. A filly, too."

All the stallions, and Doctor Heartstrong, rushed to the window to look. Out in the center of the street, nearly surrounded on all sides by approaching tendrils, an orange coated filly with a brown mane stood. Both Heartstrong's and Phantom's eyes went wide as they looked at one another, mouthing the same name, "Quill..."

Phantom bolted out the still open door of the lobby, turning so sharply that the tip of his left wing drew lines in the sand. He propelled himself towards the filly at a great speed. Within seconds he was upon her, skidding to a halt by her side.

"Quill!" he yelled over the thunder emanating from the approaching clouds. She had curled up in the fetal position, covering her head with her hooves to try to keep herself safe.

"Phantom?" she gasped, peaking through her arms. "Why are you here?"

"I should be asking you the same question," he scooped Quill up in his own arms, carrying her with him into the sky.

"Doctor Heartstrong was taking me to some family of hers in Ponyville so I'd be safe," Quill paused her explanation so that she could focus on hanging onto the pegasus as he roller-coastered his way around the enclosing clouds. Miraculously they weren't hit by any bolts of lightning or lunging tendrils, despite several close calls. She dared not open her eyes, and Phantom didn't blame her; they were flying through a horizontal vortex that was spinning around them, lighting arcing from one side to another. Phantom had to bob and weave to avoid being hit. "The train broke down so we were stuck at the platform. I wanted to walk around a bit, but the storm came... You said that the storm wouldn't hurt me; that you'd protect me. You promised!"

"And I keep my promises." Phantom held the filly as close to his chest as possible. He banked to the side, managing to escape the cloud mass through a crack in its surface. Phantom found himself high above Appleloosa, disorientated by the storm.

A low growling-like sound emanated from behind him. He turned to see several large tendrils hovering behind him. Phantom and the tendrils seemed to stare at one another for a moment before either side moved. He tucked his wings in and let gravity take over. The invisible force pulled him downwards as he fell onto his back.

Phantom watched as a cyclone formed above him. He held Quill's head close to his chest so she wouldn't be able to see the black clouds that were surrounding them. Craning his neck around so that he could see where he was falling, Phantom saw a large cloud column rising up to him, reaching out of the primary cloud mass. A bowl began to form in the top of the pillar, as if a mouth were opening up to swallow him.

He could feel Quill grabbing onto him with even more force. Despite his efforts to prevent it, she had apparently seen the same thing that he was looking at.

"Phantom," Quill's voice was shaking, "I'm scared."

"I am too, kid," he said. There was no where for the pegasus to go; they were completely surrounded now. "I am too..."

"What do we do?"

"We wait..." Phantom curled himself into as tight of a ball as he could manage, with Quill in the middle, shoring up any gaps with his wings to create a cocoon of feathers around the foal.

In moments the cloud pillar was upon them. Phantom felt his coat becoming extremely cold the moment he was engulfed by the blackness. So much so that small icicles were forming on his hairs. All went silent in an instant. Phantom had originally closed his eyes, but when he opened them again it seemed like he was looking through a dense fog. Inside the fog, he could make out other ponies who were floating around.

He recognized most of them as being local Appleloosans that he had seen around town. but while he continued to fall, however at a slower speed, the others remained still. Tendrils wrapped around their bodies, tethering their unconscious forms to the clouds. It seemed as though they were slowly being moved to the back of the storm, but Phantom couldn't have been sure.

His ears perked up. Slowly the sound of rushing wind was returning. His near-numb body was beginning to heat up. The ice turned to droplets of water that flew up past him. The fog thinned out, allowing him to see more of the environment around him. He tried to get his bearings, but that was hampered by the sheer blackness of the storm, amplified by it being night. Below, he could just barely make out the moonlit desert that was rapidly approaching.

Phantom kept his ball-like hold around Quill intact while he spread his wings in an attempt to slow their rapidly accelerating fall. Realizing that that plan had failed, he reformed the feather cocoon, hoping that it would be enough to protect her from the impact. Though that mean that Phantom would take the brunt of it. Luckily for him, it happened quickly enough that he didn't feel a thing. From his perspective, it was as though he had instantly been put to sleep.

The next time Phantom opened his eyes, his vision was blinded by the sun. Sand burned at his back and wings. Pain struck at his nerves. He merely laid there for a few minutes to gather his strength. A round object filled his view, blotting out the sun. Several brown hairs reached down from the object, tickling his nose. He moved his head out of the way of the nusance, simultaneously gaining a new perspective on the object.

Phantom cocked his head, recognizing it as the face of another pony.

"Quill?" he asked.

"Yay!" Quill cheered, wrapping her arms around his neck. "He's back!" She stood back up and looked off to the side. "See? I told you he wasn't dead."

Phantom squinted his eyes. "Wha...?"

Another pony entered his vision. "And I believed you the entire time." He recognized the mare's voice as Doctor Heartstrong's.

"What happened?" Phantom grumbled, attempting to pick himself up.

Doctor Heartstrong pushed the pegasus back onto the ground, saying, "Don't move. You disappeared inside of the storm. The next thing I knew, you were falling uncontrolably out the bottom of it at a high rate of speed. Honestly, I'm amazed you survbived."

"I'm not!" Quill said. "Of course he lived. Heroes always live!"

Phantom managed a week smile, despite his belief on the matter being the exact opposite. Again, he tried to pick himself up, but again, Doctor Heartstrong kept him down. "You need to stay still," she said. "I don't know what kinds of effects being inside of the storm had on you or Quill. You're not going anywhere until I can determine you're fine."

"The storm..." Phantom suddenly remembered everything that had transpired. "Where is it?"

"Calm down. It's gone. It just moved away earlier this morning. All of us inside the train station thought that we were gonners, but it never did anything."

"How many ponies are missing?"

"Most of them... the only ones left were the ones in the station. I haven't seen anypony else..."

"Minuette and Lyra?"

She shook her head. "Phantom... I'm sorry..."

Phantom felt something building inside of him. This time when he tried to stand up, Doctor Heartstrong wasn't able to push him back down. "Which way did it go?" he practically growled. If he had been paying anymore attention, he would have noticed Quill taking a step behind the unicorn.

"What, the storm? Phantom, you're not going to be able to—"

"Which. Way. Doctor?" Realizing that she wasn't going to be able to stop him, she pointed towards the south west.

Phantom opened his wings and took off towards the clock tower. He entered through the previously broken door, making his way up to the top of the tower. Opening the hatch, he entered the loft. He put on his vest, threw his saddlebags onto his back, and zipped back down stairs to put on his hat. In all, he was in and out in less than a minute.

He took to the skies, climbing higher and higher. Had there been clouds around, he would have easily been above them. At this altitude, his breath was becoming visible. Phantom looked in the direction that Doctor Heartstrong had pointed. On the south-west horizon, he could just barely see something that didn't belong. Several long trails of black clouds seemingly connected to the horizon. Slowly they were moving away from him. That must be the back of it... Pulling out a pair of goggles from one of his vest pockets, he put them on to protect his eyes, mainly from the cold rather than actual debris.

A sudden gust of wind put him on track. Phantom caught the breeze beneath his wings, using it to help propel himself forward at an even greater speed. The storm was on the horizon, and closing. Soon, he'd have his friends back.

Author's Note

but unfortunately, not forever.

Now I hope to complete Nevei's Fall soon, since it's already so close. Once that's done, I really want to get the first chapter done of another story idea I have, especially since in the time I have left here there's no way I can complete Broken Feathers: Desert Storm, or even get it to a good stopping point that isn't a cliff hanger.

To all my followers and fans: Thanks so much for sticking with me through yet another hiatus on my part.

Tell me in the comments to tell me what you think so far! Comments are highly appreciated!

Thanks once again for everything,
- Sam.

p.s., go check out this artist, he's fantastic!