Wind Song lashed his tail impatiently against his flanks as he, Snow Star, Orange Blossom, Honeybell, and Moonlight waited near the back of a long line of ponies which wound its way down from the front doors of Ponyville General Hospital. Wind Song and Snow Star, who had taken up the rear of the procession, took it in turns to carry the unconscious Willow who, in spite of the bouncy journey to the hospital and constant chatter of anxious ponies, had not yet woken from her faint.

“Oh, come on. Can this possibly go any slower?” Snow Star mumbled to no pony in particular.

Wind Song looked anxiously at his friend. Snow Star looked terrible. Beneath the mask of frustration he wore was a look of deepest melancholy he had never seen before. He wondered to himself what his friends could have possibly experienced that could have brought about this change for the worse.

After another five minutes, during which the line had stepped forward only two or three paces, Wind Song, who had been holding Willow, passed her gently back to Snow Star, stepped out of the long queue, and made a beeline for the front doors of the hospital.

“I’ll be right back.” he said as he passed his friends.

Many looks met him as he passed. Some, who thought he was trying to cut in line, glared indignantly, though they said nothing. Others who knew him, and most of the town did know him, looked at Wind Song hopefully. He returned the latter gazes with a reassuring smile and a nod, hoping against hope that it would do some good to ease the fears undoubtedly running rampant amongst the waiting townsponies.

As Wind Song arrived at the front doors, he was met by a unicorn in a white lab coat, stethoscope hung stereotypically around his neck and clipboard held firmly in his right fetlock. He looked almost as exhausted as Snow Star did, but without the underlying air of hopelessness his friend exhibited. The doctor appeared as though he had run a marathon and had just been ordered to haul a cart of bricks all the way to Canterlot.

“Can I help you?” the doctor said wearily, looking down at the pegasus.

“Heya, Doc.” Wind Song replied. “Busy day, eh?”

The unicorn gave him a flat look and said, “You’re telling me. Half of the ponies here have no business coming to a hospital. Most of the so-called ailments are small lacerations and bruises. Almost makes you wonder if some of them have ever been injured before.”

Wind Song, who had had everything from broken bones to concussions as a result of his training, let out an exasperated whinny. “Bruises? You’ve got to be kidding me…”

“Nope.” said the doctor tiredly. “Not even remotely. Myself and the nurses just started turning away ponies with lesser injuries about five minutes ago. That should speed things up a bit.”

Just then, a green pegasus nurse who looked just as careworn as the doctor did, walked up. “Doctor, I’ve got a patient with what looks like a sprain in his hind leg. Should I admit him? Or send him to outpatient?” At that moment, the nurse seemed to notice Wind Song.

“Oh, hey Windy. Didn’t see you there!” she said, her tension easing a bit. “What brings you in today? Not here for those tiny cuts, I hope.”

“Hey, Cloudburst.” Wind Song replied with a friendly nod. “No, actually. I was hoping my friends and I could get in to see the mayor. It’s somewhat urgent.”

Without waiting for Cloudburst’s reply, the doctor shook his head. “No no no. If I let you and your friends in right in front of this crowd, they’ll break the doors down. You’ve got to wait, just like the rest.”

Wind Song snorted, tilting his ears back slightly. “Look, doc. It’ll only take a few minutes. Two of my friends have some very important information regarding this whole fiasco that she needs to know about.”

“Look...Wind Song was it?” replied the doctor with a sigh. “Under normal circumstances, I’d absolutely oblige, but not today. The last thing we need when the whole town is in a panic is a riot.

Just then, Wind Song noticed Cloudburst, who had been listening intently to the conversation, give him a surreptitious wink before turning and walking back toward the hospital entrance.

“...and so I’m sure you can understand why I can’t just let you in.” the doctor concluded.

Wind Song glanced back to the hospital entrance and saw the last bit of Cloudburst’s frizzled wisp of a tail vanish past the double doors.

“That’s fine, doc. I get it. Thanks for your time.”

Wind Song turned and trotted quickly back to where his friends were waiting about a hundred yards off.

“Any luck?” Moonlight asked as he returned.

“We’ll see.” Wind Song replied with a sigh.

Another ten minutes passed wherein the only thing that happened was that the line progressed another five or six yards. Wind Song was beginning to lose hope that anything would come of Cloudburst’s efforts on his behalf until a few moments later, a whooshing and rustle of feathers overhead alerted them to the arrival of the very pegasus they’d been waiting for.

Fairweather, whose meticulously ironed pink blouse contrasted sharply with the dappled storm-gray hues of her coat, landed gracefully before the six friends. She quickly folded her wings and drew to a stop.

“Ah! Excellent. I figured I’d find you six here.” she said in a loud whisper. “Follow me, please. And quickly.”

Drawing as little attention as possible, the little group made their way to the hospital’s side entry where Cloudburst waited, holding the door open for them.

“Thanks, Cloudburst. I owe you one.” Wind Song said to the pegasus mare, giving her a quick hug as he passed.

“Don’t mention it, Windy. Doc’s a bit flustered at the moment. He’s never had to deal with this kind of thing before.”

“And you have?” Wind Song asked as the rest of his friends passed through the doorway.

“Manehattan, you know? The only place busier than the taverns and theaters is the hospital.” she replied as she followed Wind Song through the door, locking it behind them.

Once inside the hospital, Fairweather led them up the corridor then to the right where a stairwell brought them to the second story landing. Cloudburst, who had moved to the head of the group, unlocked the first door on their right and held it open. As they processed in, they saw that this was not just an ordinary hospital room, but a fully furnished living space complete with a sofa and a tiny stove in the corner.

“Thanks, Cloudburst. Please see to it that we’re not disturbed.” Fairweather said gravely.

The nurse nodded respectfully and backed out of the room, pulling the door shut with a click.

Without waiting, Snow Star carried his wife over to the only bed in the room and lay her gently down on it. She stirred again slightly and mumbled something inaudible.

As soon as Cloudburst was out in the hall, Fairweather said, “Snow Star.”

The distraught unicorn looked up at the mayor with pardonable impatience.

“Please, Fairweather. We have to tell you…” he began, but Fairweather interrupted him.

“Wait. Before you say any more, can you cast a privacy spell on this room?”

The poor unicorn looked more tired than ever as, with a resigned sigh, he nodded. He closed his eyes, bowed his head, and a few moments later a glowing tendril of light began to issue from his horn, drifting slowly toward the ceiling. A few seconds later, the light flickered and went out.

“Damnit!” Snow Star cursed, panting heavily as he rallied his remaining strength for a second attempt.

This time, the little stream of light made it no more than a couple of inches before going out again. Snow Star collapsed to the floor, trembling, with his head right next to Willow’s.

For a moment, Wind Song wasn’t sure if Snow Star would burst into tears or pass out, but he did neither. Unexpectedly, Willow opened her eyes slightly, reaching out one feeble leg to caress Snow Star’s cheek. Leaning forward slightly, she touched her horn to his. They looked into each other’s eyes and something profound came over them. It was that same look of contentment and knowing which Wind Song had seen in them earlier on the destroyed balcony of Town Hall.

This time, the magic definitely worked. The little tendril of light, now thicker than a pony’s leg, stretched straight to the ceiling. It seemed to all present that a smoke or fog emanated from the point where the light touched the ceiling. As it spread, translucent and rippling, and came in contact with each of the room’s four walls and slowly fell to the floor like a long hazy curtain, where it rested, still glowing slightly.

All at once, the room went dead silent, save for the labored breathing of the two unicorns. The wind in the trees, the impatient murmurs of the crowd outside, and chirping of the birds had gone completely

While this achievement left both Willow and Snow Star winded, they managed to remain conscious as Fairweather offered each of them glasses of water which must have been left there by Cloudburst.

“Welcome back, Willow.” the mayor smiled. “And thank you both for casting that spell. We cannot chance being overheard.”

Willow glanced up from her husband, who still held her gaze.

“Thank you.” Willow replied between her deep breaths.

Fairweather nodded before continuing, “I understand this may be difficult, but I need to know what you saw with no details left out. By all accounts, and I’ve listened to several in the last hour or so, Black Rose seemed to take a particular interest in the two of you.”

Snow Star looked at Willow, but she shook her head, eyes beginning to glisten. He nodded and turned back to Fairweather.

“Fairweather.” he began grimly. “I think Willow and I accidentally saw what Black Rose has planned for Equestria.”

Fairweather’s eyes widened a good deal, but she only nodded for him to continue.

“Just after we got up onto the balcony at Town Hall, Willow and I both found ourselves in bed in a house in Canterlot. Our house in Canterlot.”

“You have a house in Canterlot?” Orange Blossom piped up.

“No, of course not. But for some reason, we were utterly convinced that we did. For some reason, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. We totally forgot about the incident on the balcony and we were convinced we’d always lived in Canterlot. We lived in a nice house on Trottingham Court in an upscale part of town, we both worked for the Canterlot Spellweaver’s Guild, and we attended balls every other evening or so. Honestly, everything about our lives seemed perfect, almost like something out of a dream, but it felt so real that neither of us questioned it.”

“Ooooh.” replied Orange Blossom, drawing out the word.

“Anyway” Snow Star continued. “We all lived under the benevolent and prosperous rule of Empress Black Rose who nopony ever saw because she was always off conquering new lands for the great Equestrian Empire.”

Several sets of eyebrows were raised at this last statement.

“Yep.” Snow Star continued in response. “We remembered absolutely nothing about our lives before we lived in Canterlot and so the empress was just another part of the dream we were living in. We didn’t remember Ponyville, Princess Twilight...anything. Everything was so perfectly ordinary, we didn’t even notice when the pegasi and earth ponies started vanishing. At least not at first.”

Of all the things Snow Star had said so far, this got the most attention.

Snow Star carried on. “We had always worked side by side with the two other pony races without distinction. They started disappearing so gradually that nopony seemed to notice something strange was going on. The first time Willow or myself noticed something was wrong was when the guild receptionist, Maple, didn’t show up for work. We asked after her and were told that she had put in her resignation the previous evening and wouldn’t be returning. Somehow, nopony knew anything else. They didn’t know why she had quit or where she had gone, and that struck Willow and I as being odd.”

Snow Star paused momentarily and took a sip of his water before proceeding.

“Anyway, this was when we first started really paying attention to our surroundings and noticed, during the fifteen or twenty minutes of our walk home from work that evening, that we only saw only one or two pegasi and a couple of earth ponies out and about. After that, things only got stranger. The following morning while reading the paper, full of the usual government propaganda about a ‘perfect empire’, I started flipping through the pages. Wedding announcements, great achievements, sports...it was all unicorns. Every last word. Not once were the other races mentioned. It was almost as if they were being erased from existence.”

While Snow Star had been speaking, Wind Song noticed that his friend’s tone had been becoming more and more distressed.

“I showed Willow the paper and we both agreed that it was probably best that we didn’t mention our findings to anypony else until we got a bit closer to figuring out what was up. Over the following five or six weeks, random bits and pieces of our real lives here in Ponyville started to trickle through, though we never fully realized we were dreaming. We spent ages investigating but nothing else turned up. Things started to level out and we lost interest in the disappearances.”

“It wasn’t until we were on our way home one Friday evening that this whole world turned on its head. Willow and I had been chatting about our jobs and whatnot when we accidentally made a wrong turn and ended up in Canterlot’s north quarter.”

“The slums.” Fairweather said knowingly.

“The slums.” Snow Star confirmed. “Everything was all run-down and dishevelled, buildings were falling apart, garbage was strewn around everywhere...in fact, the only thing that was nice about the place was the streets, which looked new and were completely spotless. The odd part was that there wasn’t a single pony from one end to the other, rich or poor.”

“For those of you who don’t know, Willow grew up in Canterlot. She’d been to the north quarter any number of times for charity reasons and she told me that the place was normally packed full of needy ponies trying to make their way in Canterlot.”

Willow, who had turned away when Snow Star had begun the story, sniffed loudly and nodded without turning her head.

“We decided to check a few houses to see if anypony was hiding in there, but we found nothing. We even tried calling out, but didn’t get an answer. We were almost through that quarter and getting pretty close to Criollo Circle when we smelled something.” Snow Star squinted and wrinkled his nose at the memory. “It smelled like an abandoned butcher shop. I’ve smelled rotting meat before, but this was worse. Neither Willow nor myself knew what to make of it. We followed the smell to a drain in the side of the road that was too small to climb through. That bit we found to be really strange because Canterlot’s sewers are separate from its drainage tunnels. It took quite a bit of talking, but we decided that we weren’t going to wait to investigate. We pulled open one of the drain access covers and climbed down a ladder into a tunnel that was just tall enough for us to walk through without bumping our heads. The smell was so bad that we almost turned back.”

“After a quick light charm, we noted that the tunnel we were in split off two ways. We could go either west or south. We opted to go down the south leg of the tunnel because it smelled worse in that direction. We cast a quick spell to purify the air we breathed and set out south. Initially, the walls were all lined with stone arches, but as the tunnel continued, it sloped downward and, after about what we guessed was around a mile, it was rough-hewn rock.”

“Are you okay, Snow?” Moonlight asked. And well she might ask. Wind Song looked down and saw that his friend was trembling visibly.

Snow Star merely shook his head and continued. “When we stopped for a quick rest, Willow heard a noise in the distance. It was all a bit confused...like a combination of a dozen blacksmiths pounding out horseshoes mixed with occasional shouts we couldn’t understand. So, of course, we got up and continued toward it. We walked another five or six hundred yards before the tunnel made a sharp left turn. We saw a faint light coming from just in front of us, up and to the right.”

Snow Star’s voice had become a dead, emotionless monotone. Everypony in the room held their breath.

“We put out our light charms and found that if we leaned against the wall, we could see through the little rectangular opening where the light was coming through.”

“What was it?” asked Fairweather urgently, almost in a whisper.

“We had found the missing pegasi and earth ponies. The opening looked out over an enormous underground ravine. The walls were almost completely covered in what looked like gigantic clear gems or crystals. What had to be hundreds of ponies were chained together on platforms along the walls, mining the crystal. A few unicorns were scattered around, yelling at them. I even saw two or three with whips.”

A single tear dropped from the tip of Snow Star’s nose as he looked at the floor. His audience was utterly silent.

Snow Star’s voice quavered as he went on. “They were slaves. All of them. Young and old, stallion or mare. I wanted to jump through that opening and kill as many of those taskmasters as I could. I didn’t care. Willow was the one who stopped me. She told me to remove my air purifying spell. I did. The stench cleared my head. I realized the rotting smell we had come down into the tunnel for wasn’t coming from that opening, but from further down the tunnel.”

Willow, still facing away from the group, began to cry in earnest now. Snow Star still looked at the floor. A small puddle was forming beneath the eyes none of his friends could see, yet he still continued to speak in short sentences broken with long pauses.

“A scream from further down the tunnel made us both jump. It sounded like the scream of a filly. We rose and galloped toward it. We came to a metal door in the wall ahead of us. It was open slightly. We looked through.”

Snow Star stopped speaking and, like Willow, turned his head away from the group and pushed his face into the side of the mattress.

Fairweather, her own voice thick with emotion, asked quietly, “What did you see?”

Snow Star said nothing.

Unexpectedly, Willow spoke without turning her head. Her voice was surprisingly level and clear.

“You know how it’s said that foals have greater magical potential than one hundred grown ponies?” she asked.

Everypony shook their heads except for Moonlight, who whispered, “Yes.”

All present, save Willow and Snow Star, stared at her in surprise.

Moonlight ruffled her wings. “In the field of arcanology, which is the study of magic as a science, it’s commonly known that every pony, whether pegasus, earth pony, or unicorn, has similar magical potential. This potential is greatest in young foals and a vast amount of that potential is manifested when…”

Willow cut Moonlight off, “...Manifested when a foal discovers their life purpose in the form of a cutie mark. Taken word for word from ‘Enchanting Anomalies’ by Twilight Sparkle.”

A look of horror began to grow first on Moonlight’s face, then on Fairweather’s, as comprehension dawned on them, followed by the others a few moments later. Wind Song’s blood went cold.

“Cages.” Willow finally turned her bloodshot eyes to her friends, tears spilling down her face in an unbroken stream of grief. “Dozens of cages packed with colts and fillies were lined up along the wall opposite from where we looked through the door. On the other side of the room were stacks of small faceted and polished gems, each held in a metal frame. One by one a colt or filly was pulled out of a cage and…” Willow’s face twisted into a tight grimace and she buried her head in the pillow.

Snow Star looked up, a look of utter rage darkening his features.

“THEY WERE BEING HARVESTED!” He shouted so loud his voice cracked. “HARVESTED LIKE FUCKING CROPS.” He turned and pounded his head against the bed frame, sobbing convulsively.

“For their magic?” Fairweather asked, tears in her own eyes now despite her best efforts to remain calm.

Snow Star, who had looked back down at the floor, nodded.

“Did they live?” Fairweather asked simply, but she had already guessed the answer.

“What we had smelled all the way up in the north quarter was coming from the pile of bodies. Hundreds, Fairweather. Maybe thousands, I don’t know. Their magic was somehow stored in the gems Willow mentioned. Willow and I both saw something in the center of the room. It was a machine of some kind. The largest part looked like a piece of amber and a piece of diamond, somehow fused in the exact middle. We would have studied it closer, but then...she found us.”

“Black Rose.” Fairweather said, making it a statement rather than a question.

Snow Star nodded and said numbly, “Until that moment, neither Willow nor I had ever even had the foggiest idea of what pain was. The world around us vanished and all of our memories suddenly came back. She tortured us, Fairweather. Tortured us until we were at the brink of madness, demanding to know who we’d told. We said nothing, so she would torture us again. . We knew that if Rose believed even for a moment that we hadn’t told anypony, she’d have killed us then and there. But if she killed us, and believe me, there were many times we wished she just would, we wouldn’t be able to pass on what we’d seen. So...we endured. I don’t know what she is, Fairweather, but she doesn’t fit into the normal pattern of things. Her power was...overwhelming, more than anything you could ever imagine, even in your wildest dreams.”

Without another word, Snow Star crept up onto the bed with Willow where they sat in total silence.

Fairweather was analyzing all of this new information.

Wiping her eyes with a foreleg, she called, “Cinder!”

Instantly and without warning, a wreath of flame sprang into existence in the middle of the room. This caught the attention of even Snow Star and Willow who turned quickly to observe the strange occurrence. The flame quickly burned itself out, revealing a small ruby-colored dragon who stood, looking anxiously around the room.

Fairweather addressed the room, “My friends, this is my companion and dear friend, Cinder.”

The dragon waved timidly. The others either nodded or waved in reply.

“Cinder is in direct correspondence with Spike of Canterlot.” Fairweather continued.

The others gaped at her, disbelieving.

“You mean Spike as in…” Honeybell began.

“Sir Spike, advisor to Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Fairweather said. “About an hour ago, Cinder received a letter from Spike.”

Cinder dutifully handed Fairweather a roll of wrinkled parchment which looked as though it had been dropped in a puddle of water then dried over a mantlepiece. As she opened the scroll, Wind Song noted that the letters on the parchment, which were scrawled in a shaky and uneven script, looked as though enormous tears had dripped onto them, causing the ink to run down the page.

With substantial effort on Fairweather’s part, she read out the short message:

“Fairweather,

Twilight is alive, but has been captured. It is only a matter of time before I am discovered by Black Rose or her goons and I have information I must pass on. Please have the six ponies we spoke of meet me at my current place of residence at the earliest possible opportunity. Be on your guard. Rose is sending soldiers to Ponyville to seek them out, but she wants them alive. Please understand that Rose is not invincible and can be defeated. We are all in this together.

May the wind rise ever under your wings,

Spike”

Wind Song whistled in astonishment.

“‘...the six ponies we spoke of’?” he quoted. “I think you have some explaining of your own to do, mayor.”

Just then, there were three bright flashes of green light, accompanied by three concussive reports which they felt even through the silencing spell Snow Star and Willow had cast.

Fairweather immediately whirled toward the far window.

“DAMN! They’re here! It should have taken them hours!” she said, turning quickly back around.

“Who?!” Wind Song and Orange Blossom asked together.

Fairweather ignored the question. “I’m sorry I don’t have more time to explain. Spike is currently hiding in the Crystal Caverns under Canterlot. You need to get to him. The quickest route is through Bell Meadow.”

This pronouncement was followed by a storm of angry protests.

“Through Bell Meadow? Fairweather, you’re insane!” Wind Song shouted indignantly over the others.

“I’m not insane, Windy. The railways are being watched and you can’t all fly.” Fairweather replied bluntly. “Unless you’re prepared to submit to the reality that Black Rose seems to have prepared for Equestria or unless you can come up with a better idea in the next sixty seconds, I need you all to trust me.

Wind Song’s reply was halted by several crashes and bangs as well as the sound of splintering wood somewhere on the floor below. Somepony screamed. Apparently Willow and Snow Star’s silencing spell had been broken.

“All of you, quickly! Get into that closet over there. There are packs I’ve prepared for each of you hanging on the opposite wall. Once you have those on, stomp on the floor three times. I believe Spike has the information necessary to defeat Black Rose before she begins executing her plans, but you have to go, now!”

They could hear hoofstomps echoing up the stairwell.

“GO!” Fairweather whispered as loud as she could.

There was nothing for it. The six friends leapt up, Wind Song and Honeybell helping to pull Willow and Snow Star to their hooves, and galloped across the room toward the only other door. Wind Song pulled open the door and held it while everypony clambered in.

Just as Wind Song was preparing to follow Moonlight through the door, Fairweather called, “Windy, Moonlight!”

The two pegasi turned to face her.

“As soon as you’re all ready, stomp three times on the floor. Once you reach the bottom, follow the west tunnel to the surface.”

Neither Wind Song nor Moonlight understood what Fairweather meant. Nevertheless, they both nodded and jumped into the closet.

As Wind Song pulled the door shut, he watched through the narrowing gap as Fairweather turned and nervously exited the room.

The door drew shut with a “click”. Wind Song locked it and turned to see the others frantically helping each other strap on their saddlebags.

“Oy! Whatchu doin up this way, bitch?” the angry voice of a stallion said from the hallway.

“Excuse me?” came the indignant voice of Fairweather.

Wind Song grabbed his own saddle bag, hitching it into place on his back and securing it in place.

“I asked, what’s the mayor of this bloomin’ backwater doing up in this wing o’ the bloody hospital all alone?” the voice came again.

Wind Song could hear two sets of hooves enter the room just outside the closet and he pressed his ear to the door.

“Seeing to the patients, of course, you idiot. What else would I be doing in a hospital?” Fairweather shouted with contempt and without a single hint of fear.

Wind Song heard the stallion growling and could just imagine him kicking Fairweather through the wall when another voice came from immediately outside the closet door, making him jump back in surprise.

“Ey, boss!” the second voice said. “What about in ‘ere?”

“What kinda stupid are ye?” asked the first voice. “Why you gotta ask me ‘bout everythin’? Just open the damned thing and check.”

Somepony tried the handle on the closet door.

“It’s locked!” came the second voice.

“Well, bust it down then, ya dunce!” shouted the first voice.

“This’ll be the fourth damned door I’ve ‘ad to bust down today! You want me to break a leg?” asked the second voice almost petuously.

“Caltrop, a broken leg’s gonna be the least of your worries if you don’t get to it!”

“Fine, fine fine.” replied Caltrop.

It was time to go, thought Wind Song as he heard the retreating hoofsteps of Caltrop, who was undoubtedly preparing to batter the door down.

Wind Song looked at his friends who all stood staring at him, pupils pinpricks of fear.

“Stomp on the floor three times, she said.” Wind Song reminded himself.

Hoping against hope that Fairweather knew what she was doing, Wind Song gave the floor three solid stomps. “Bang, Bang, BANG!”

Wind Song’s final stomp on the floor was punctuated by a loud crash and the sound of splintering wood as the door of the closet burst inward. The light spilling into the dark space outlined the silhouette of two burly looking unicorns who were staring directly at them.

Author's Note

The Thorn of Equestria - Chapter 5

The Thorn of Equestria

Chapter 5

By Wind Song

REVISED 18OCT20