Broken Wings, Scattered Dust

Here in This Moment of Silence

The river melted and turned into liquid light.  Deluge’s hoof pulled and I, by no will of my own, followed.  She took us upwards, into the sky.  Above the forest.

It was like civilization had been ripped out of existence.  Gone were Canterlot’s marbled spires.  Gone were the pastel homes of Ponyville.  Gone were the railroads, the gardens—even Cloudsdale.  All that remained was pure, unadulterated wilderness, frozen in time.

The green of the forest, the sky’s blue, even, somehow, the mountain’s grey—every color came to life, given striking vividity by fae magic.  And with Deluge here, the new Sapphire Paradigm...every lake, every river, every had been set ablaze with what looked like blue fire.  Smoke the color of cobalt rose from their flames, curling and twisting skyward in prolonged death.

Yet...ponies themselves, nature’s children—they were still here, but only ghosts of what they really were, colors dulled and solidity weakened.  And oddly, most of Ponyville’s occupants remained largely unaffected, while almost all of Canterlot’s were almost invisible.  All of them but one.  A lone pony in the highest spire, who appeared as a pitch-black cutout through which space was clearly visible.

Luna.

PrincessLuna.

Damn it, Whimsy.

We were floating above Everfree—but not midair.  There was no air here.  None.

Adrenaline surged as I tried to draw breath, but I couldn’t.

I didn’t have to.

“Welcome to the fae plane,” Deluge said.  “Wild magic’s home.”

I was contemplating the no-breathing phenomenon when something collided with me, hard, bowling me end over end—with no hope of recovery, thanks to the lack of an atmosphere.  At least until whatever was holding us up reexerted itself, and we slowly spun to a halt.  Then I noticed who’d tackled me.

“WHIMSY!”

“Ow,” Whimsy protested into my neck.  “Chill, Featherbrain, I’m fine, but not for long if you crush me.”

I released her.  “Sorry.  I’ve...I’ve been worried.”

“I know.”  She stuck her tongue out at me, but returned a light hug.  “Really, I’m okay.”

She sounded different, but...so did I.  Something was affecting our voices.

“It’s mental,” Deluge said, and now that I had noticed, I easily picked out the odd echoes, the ethereal quality of her voice.  Of all of our voices.  “No air, no sound.  But we all, deep down, come from the wild, and so we can hear each other.”  She looked out over the forest.  “We all speak the same language.”

“Duh,” said Whimsy.

“What are you doing here anyways?” I asked her, trying to ignore how odd it felt to have no air under my wings.  I really wanted to fold them, but instinct refused.

“Waiting for Deluge.  She said she had someone to visit before we head out.”

“Well,” Deluge said.  “I’m almost finished.  Just gotta drop these two off at Canterlot.”

“Wait, where are you two headed?”

“Flood in Seaddle, remember?”

I frowned.  “But why do you need Whimsy?”

“Gotta stop ‘em from panicking.  Plus, the less ponies know about me, the better.”

I couldn’t help a grin in response.  “Aye.  Hope she’s feeling up to it.”

“I’m right here,” Whimsy grumbled.  “And just you wait.  They’ll think the ocean’s a salt lick when I’m done with ‘em.”

I knew she was bluffing.  She’d never weaved any sort of illusion on a scale large enough to deceive an entire city.  But then, she never had any reason to, and she was more than clever enough to figure out ways that might save her those few, crucial ounces of effort.

So I winked at her.  “Try not to make it stick, will you?”

“Pff.  You’re no fun.  A giant ball pit, then.”

Deluge cleared her throat.  “Just so you guys know, time is still passing for us, just not for the world, if you catch my drift.”

I nodded.  Who would want to return to a world they’d out-aged—to the world they knew, while they themselves had grown old?  “Stay safe,” I told Whimsy, cuffing her on the back.

Any and all levity she was toting disappeared.  “I will.”

Pride felt like a warm sun inside me.  She had come so, so far, and she knew just how much she meant to me...our separation only threw that into sharper focus.  I was nothing without her, but she...she could be anything she wanted to be.  Anything.

“Let’s go,” Deluge said shortly, grabbing hold of Violet with one hoof and me with the other.  She dragged us—also without her wings—towards Canterlot.  Whatever she was using, however she was using it...it was invisible, but it took maybe a minute before we were floating before Canterlot’s massive drawbridge.

“Hm,” I said.  “So you don’t turn into water or anything?”

She laughed.  “I thought that at first, too, but no.  It’s—okay, I’d tell you if I had the time, but I really gotta go.  Vi might’ve figured it out by now though.”

Violet looked her dangling hooves.  “Maybe.  But...you have a lot to tell me.”

“When I have time,” Deluge said sadly.  “I don’t have a whole lot anymore.  Anyways, off you go.”

She flung us towards Canterlot’s moat of light, and as soon as we touched it, I felt the fae magic slip away, and reality return to us.  Or we returned to reality...I couldn’t be sure.  Without fae magic surrounding me, I felt...weakened, like part of me was missing.  But the sensation didn’t last long—Violet clearly didn’t know how to swim.