They said it was because he was old, slow, and at his age, over sixty, that the amount of magic that a pegasus could have was lower than it was during their youth. It was expected for a pegasus of his age to have a bit of trouble flying, using magic, and all sorts of things that they could do when they were a child or a young adult. That he should just accept it and to move on with what he had left.
But Zephyr knew different. Unlike many others his age he kept himself somewhat in shape, he walked, he ran, he did his presses, his stretches, and the usual things that someone of his age could do to keep himself in shape. It worked well and he could run laps around the average late sixty-year-old, but even then he felt something was wrong in the air, terribly wrong.
He didn’t know how to describe it, but if he had to he would say that it felt like a sort of invisible decay. A noxious smell or a faint odor that you could never really tell was there unless you started to pay attention to it and focused on it. Because if you didn’t, then the world felt like it was telling you that things were alright; that everything was calm, the weather was clean and cool, and all was right with the world.
But it wasn’t, it just wasn’t, because he could tell that things were wrong. The weather didn’t feel right anymore, the wind felt hard to move, the gusts that he could do as a child felt stiff now, and things overall…just felt wrong. Was the late fall weather as warm as it once was when he was a kid? Did kids no longer play around in the skies and instead walk or drive everywhere they could? Didn't they used to just fly from place to place when they needed to? He didn’t know because of how often he stayed inside these days, but a part of him told him that if they weren't then things were wrong.
“Maybe,” he said to himself as he walked around on his usual morning trips, “maybe I’m just imagining things. Yeah, yeah, maybe I’m just imagining it.” Running a hoof through his hair, which was thankfully still intact, he hummed to himself as he looked around at the factories and the power generators around Cloudsdale, and watched as they burned through what he could guess to be thousands of pounds of gems and fuel a day to make the modern things that a person needed today: TVs, radios, cars, medication, toys, and nearly everything that a person could imagine. Each of them pumping out columns of odd-colored smoke and ash into the surrounding air that if he smelled made his lungs cough and wheeze.
And watching them slowly dissipate into nothing Zephyr watched the skies slowly grow dark as a team of pegasus came in to bring Cloudsdale its share of water and air from the National Weather Bureau. A fact that he took with a mixture of light scorn and dread.
“Should probably head home soon,” he said as he watched the team slowly begin their work while dressed in their rubber suits. “It’ll be raining soon and last time I got caught in the rain my feathers hurt for a week and a day. Hmph, should have paid attention to those warnings from the news on not staying outside.”
So making his way home on hoof Zephyr watched as cars, trucks, and every vehicle that he could imagine made their way through the streets. Each of them filled the air with noise, smoke, and the acrid taste in his tongue that could never go away now. In time, his former thoughts died away as he looked forward to a vacation that he had been planning for a while, a trip to the Crystal Empire.
I wonder what I'll see when I get there, he thought to himself as he passed by a puddle and looked at his old complexion as he collected his thoughts, probably snow, snow, and more snow. I haven’t seen any good snow for a while so it’ll be nice to see some for once in my life.
Thankfully Zephyr was right. The Crystal Empire had snow, snow, snow, and more snow. The problem for him was the temperature and the feel of it. Sure it was cold, it was soft, but something about it was wrong. Not in the snow itself, but in the area around him. Was the Crystal Empire a place where someone like him, an old man nearing his seventies, could wander around in a light jacket? It sure didn’t feel like it from the letters he had from his sister.
I don’t know, he thought to himself as he looked around at the area he pulled out his tourist guide and flipped through it as he looked for someone who he had exchanged letters with now and then. I don’t know, but hopefully somebody does. Maybe they can tell me what's wrong.
“No, I don’t feel like anything is wrong,” Sunburst said to him across a table as the two of them sat in his private quarters in the royal palace. ‘I think you're probably just hallucinating things to be honest. I mean we’re both old you know? Most creatures generally don’t live as long as we do until your late sixties and my early seventies. You're probably just reminiscing on the past a bit too much these days. ”
“Mhmh, I guess,” Zephyr said a bit unsure to himself as he sipped at a cup of tea that was on the table. “Still though, it feels like something's wrong.”
“Like what?” Sunburst said a bit confused as he idly poured himself a glass through a strainer.
“I uh,” Zephyr tried to word out before collapsing into the mug of tea that he had. “I dunno. It’s just that things feel wrong these days you know? Back in Cloudsdale I can’t help but notice that the weather feels warmer, the smell isn’t the same as it once was, and that things feel different now. And that just…feels wrong you know? Like they aren’t the way that they should be.”
“Oh don’t worry about it,” Sunburst waved off with a hoof. “I’m sure it’ll be fine in time. You're probably just having to get used to the effects of Cloudsdale being industrialized. The smell is bound to come from the factories and whatnot along with the warmth.”
“I mean,” he said waving a hoof off towards a nearby window, “we’re having to get used to it as well. The factories around us chew up so much coal and gems that we don’t even have to use the crystal heart as much as we used to. All we have to do now is just get a few pegasus teams to wrap the city in a heat cloak and we’re fine! No need to rely on the clunky old gem apparatus that we used to back in the empire's early days anymore.”
“And you don’t think anything is wrong with that? ” Zephyr said, a bit unsure. “That your factories are just making so much heat and smoke that you don’t need to rely on the Crystal Heart anymore?”
Sunburst merely gave a shake of his head as he took another sip of his tea, but as he did so Zephyr noticed something about it.
“You're not using your horn are you?” he said as he watched Sunburst take a drink while recalling the earlier days in which they used to talk during the few visits he made to him. “Didn’t you used to use your magic for that?”
“Yeah, when I was younger,” Sunburst said with a shrug, “but not anymore. Now that I'm older, the magic that I have is weaker than it used to be.” Humming for a moment he refreshed his glass with his hoof. “These days I have trouble floating spoons of sugar now, much less a full mug. I’m sure that in a decade or two all I’ll be able to do is just turn pages with it.”
“And that doesn't bother you?” Zephyr asked again, a bit scared at the idea of no longer having any access to his magic. “That you eventually won’t be able to use magic anymore?”
“I mean...no, not really,” Sunburst answered back. “It’s what happens to everyone as they get older. The amount of magic that they can gather and use simply ebbs away. It won’t drain away entirely, but like a muscle in an old stallion, it will grow weaker with time. There have only been a few instances in the world where someone was entirely unable to use magic at all.”
"But what about Starswirl?” Zephyr prodded him, remembering how Starswirl's power only grew as he got older. “What about him?”
“Starswirl is an exception to the rule, he isn't it itself,” Sunburst answered Zephyr. “He was born with the right marks, the right gifts, and at the right time to get to where he was. For the rest of us, it’s just-
“But what about,” Zephyr tried to offer up before he was cut off by Sunburst.
“But what about this, what about that,” Sunburst said, repeating Zephyr’s thoughts before putting a hoof on the table to get his attention. “Look. That’s just the way of life, you know? As time passes, we get older, weaker, and in time to nothing. It’s entirely normal for living ponies like us. Eventually, we’ll all just become dust.”
“That feels grim,” Zephyr couldn't help but snark out. “Where did you get that attitude from?”
“College,” Sunburst Sunburst answered. “Go through enough volumes of someone serenading about death and decay when you're bored in class and eventually even the ennui of the cosmos's feel like nothing. You should try it someday. I’m sure it’ll help you with the mental crisis you're in.”
Zephyr only grumbled as he sipped his tea while Sunburst drank his with a smile. A moment of peace passed as they continued to drink. In time a spark came to the mind of Sunburst as he recalled something that he had forgotten about until now.
“Still though, you do bring up something that’s been on my mind for a little bit,” Sunburst acquiesced as he recalled the memory. “And that's the children.”
“Oh?” Zephyr said, raising an eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that more than a few creature these days tend to grow up like me, “he said pointing a hoof to himself. “That is having a harder time to use magic, to wield it in an extraneous capacity, and to recover from it than they usually would. Oftentimes now they just get exhausted from a few spells and have to take medication to relieve it.”
“Really?” Zephyr said. “That really happens now? Is it common?”
“Maybe? I dunno,” Sunburst replied, shrugging. “It’s just that it's happened enough times that I think a few hospitals are noting it down, but nothing too extreme or otherwise I think. Probably just something about it with the changing times that's all. With medicine as it is, a lot of foals are now able to be conceived and raised than before and the world has had a population boom since then. I’m sure that a few sick kids like me were bound to crop up eventually.”
Zephyr only hummed in response as he looked at the mug of tea that he had. Sunburst's idea made sense, get a big enough population, and eventually, you’ll be able to find a few anomalies, but still, something about it felt off. Why weren’t their conditions cured then if it was known across several hospitals? Was technology just not up to the task yet? Or maybe it was indicative of something worse.
“I guess, but I just…,I uh,” Zephyr began again. “I just, I dunno, something about that feels off.”
“Something will always feel off, friend,” Sunburst replied, getting up to take a moment to stretch, “but that’s life. It’s honestly just lumpy at times and the only thing we can do is to just keep moving.”
Zephyr refused to budge in response, instead, he just looked at the mug of tea that looked sour now and contemplated things. How could things be going wrong already? They felt small, almost invisible now, but what about the future? What then? Could these problems become so big that everyone would get sick? That the north wouldn't become the frozen place that it was known for and that it would be just as hot as Zebrica? If all they had to do now was just make a magical trap to keep the heat in, then…..then.
“Look Zephyr,” Sunburst said, noticing his sullen demeanor and interrupting his train of thought. “I have a few colleagues in Zebrica, Griffonia, and Hippogriffia. If you want to ask them some questions, then feel free to give me a letter or two. I’m sure that they can answer them and give you some peace of mind if you're that adamant about it.”
‘Really?” he said, peeking up at the offer. “You’ll do that?”
“Yeah, why not,” he said, shrugging. “We’ve been friends on and off for a while now and if it’ll give you some peace of mind then it's the least I can do for you.”
“Plus,” he said looking at the clock, “I have a meeting in about 10 minutes or so and I’ll need to cut our talk short. You can think of the offer as a bit of a consolation prize I guess.”
“Alright,” he said, nodding to himself as he gathered his jacket and put it back on. “I’ll take your offer then. See you around.”
“See you then,” Sunburst said with a smile as he led Zephyr out. “Hopefully the world won’t plunge into total war the next time we meet up.”
“Heh, hopefully not,” Zephyr mumbled to himself as he made his way out the door while he thought of what to write to them. “Hopefully not.”
A few months after Zephyr wrote the letters and mailed them to Sunburst, they arrived. Each of them thankfully was in good condition, especially the ones addressed to Zebrica, but the information that they had wasn’t.
Because the information those letters had was the same even if they weren’t identical; Hippogriffia was slowly running out of shards to give to their children and they were rationing them out now with more than a few becoming precious family heirlooms. The vibrant flora and fauna of the Zebrica continent was becoming rarer with time as cities grew and the ambitions of their citizens and people did. All the while the freshwater lakes in Griffonia slowly shrank and the fish stocks of the coasts slowly decreased as well. The stepping stones for what Zephyr guessed to be an apocalyptic event in the making. The source of which he suspected was the factories and the industrial plants everyone was building nowadays.
However nothing truly bad was happening yet, only just a few events and promises that had to be kept for some and a change in prices in a few areas, but Zephyr could tell something terrible was going to happen eventually, something that he was afraid only he knew about.
“ It all just seems so…unreal,” he said to himself in his home, once his parents had passed down to him by being the only one willing to accept it. “How could this even happen in the first place?”
Well, maybe it just wasn’t in everyone's minds then. After all, we did the uhm…..you know, he thought to himself as he gestured out the window not wanting to discuss the past few decades that he had gone through in his early twenties. Yeah, maybe it just wasn’t in everyone's mind back then. We were all so busy with the war, with the revolutions, and you know what that it never even crossed our minds on how the factories and the weapons we were building now were slowly hurting us in the long term. After all, why should you worry about the future when you have to worry about today?
“But this is the future,” he found himself arguing with himself as he looked out the window and watched the rain slowly make its way down while the sour and acid smell pricked his nose. “It’s been over four decades since the world turned over and already I can feel its effects, not entirely, but it’s still there. The heat, the smell, the defects, and more. Will this be how it’ll always be when that time comes? Will the days always be hot? Will the rain always hurt my wings and feathers? Will there be a new generation of unicorns, pegasus's, and earth ponies like Sunburst? Ones who could never use magic even though they were surrounded by it all their lives?
But you won't be alive by then, the thought in his head, much younger than his, echoed back to him. It’ll take decades if not centuries for that to happen. Why should you care about that right now?
“Because I,” he found himself trying to word out. “Because I care?”
About what? the voice in his head told him as he looked around his empty home. About some trees that you’ll ever see, about some children that you’ll never be with, or a world that never did anything for you? Please, we both know how that’ll go between you and me. Let’s not argue about it here and now.
“I-I guess,” Zephyr found himself sighing before he looked at a letter confirming the minor occurrences of bleached coral in Hippogriffia, “but still. How long will this go on until it reaches the end? Will this…disease, if you can call it that, just keep going on until we face a global crisis that threatens to swallow the world whole? Will that be the end of it?”
Who knows, his thoughts told him as he looked at another letter outlining the occurrences of what was going on in Zebrica aside from the flourishing industrial market that slowly choked their skies and caused the spread of asthma whose writer never thought to link the two together. But whatever that'll be, it’s going to take a long time for it to happen.
“I suppose, “Zephyr agreed with himself as he began to sort them. “But the question on my mind is then, what now? Should I do something about this and get the word out to people? I might not know anyone these days, but maybe if I advocate it in public or talk to people about it they’ll listen. Maybe we can do something about it before it’s too late.”
Or, the other part of him said. We could just mail it to some college or some institution that’ll know better than us. They’ll probably know what to do with this. Maybe they could even give you an award or something if you were the first one to catch it.
“Yeah,” he agreed with a nod to do so at the very least, “yeah they would. The only question then is with that out of way is, what do I do about it personally?”
Both parts of him shrugged at that question. One leaned towards simply carrying on with his life as normal, the other advocated for action, but neither of them had the will to put up a fight with the other. They were just too tired, and too old, and their feelings on the matter came from the one person who could live their lives with utter neutrality and apathy. One that Zephyr knew would overpower him in time if he let it.
So knowing his feelings on the matter, Zephyr produced a small coin that he had in his room before holding it in his hooves.
“Alright,” he told himself as he held it in his hooves. “Heads yes, tails no. I feel like whatever we do here won’t amount to much, but it’ll at least give us something to do and maybe it’ll do someone some good. Hopefully, give whoever is on the receiving end of this mess some hope that we tried to fix things before they went so wrong.”
Right, the other part of him thought, and even if we don’t do anything. At least we can say that someone will know about this in the end, someone that isn’t just us. Someone who hopefully cares.
“Yeah,” he said as he held the coin in his hooves as he judged its weight, “hopefully.”
With a flick of his flick of his hooves, Zephyr sent the coin flying through the air. The golden bit came to a perfect arc as it flew flipping once, twice, thrice, seven, nine, ten, twelve, and more as it did so. Eventually landing on his desk on a letter that had a picture of a giant hole that he couldn't make any sense out of.
So ignoring the letter and focusing on the coin Zephyr peaked at it curiously and noted its result. Eventually nodding to himself so that he could gather some resolution and drive, and did what it told him to do, even if it didn’t seem like the best decision in the world.
“Hopefully, this at least mean something in the end,” he told himself as he got to work, hopefully.
