//------------------------------//
// Wings of the Wind II 
// Story: Applejack Gets Lost 
// by MagicS 
//------------------------------//

“Wings of the what?” Applejack said, cocking her head to one side.

“Wings of the Wind.” Quartz sighed while Marble rolled his eyes. “To put it as simply as possible it is a fighting art developed by pegasi in response to Hoof of the Earth. I’ll explain in greater detail later, first I’d like to tell you about all of us and Hoof of the Earth. I want you to know how important this is to us.”

Applejack nodded. “I understand. I’ll, uh, try not to interrupt again.”

“Thank you, but please, if you have a question that you think is pertinent don’t be afraid to ask. This is a time for you to learn everything.” Quartz smiled lightly and Applejack smiled back. Whatever else, they were still friends.

“So I’ll start from the very beginning, when the four of us were brought into Hoof of the Earth.” Quartz and the others sat down next to each other on the carpet, Obsidian motioned Applejack to sit as well, apparently it would be a long story. “We’re orphans. We came from the same village and orphanage far south from here, I couldn’t tell you the name, we were taught to forget our past lives when the training at the monastery began. Although some things you just can’t forget.”

If anypony tried to get me to forget Sweet Apple Acres they’d have their work cut out for them.

Applejack kept that tangent to herself as Quartz continued. “It was difficult. We were put through grueling strength-training and stuck on strict exercise regiments as foals not even five years old. But I didn’t mind, not truly, I felt like I was doing something. Something that mattered now instead of sitting around messing with other children all day, just hoping that one day some nice pony would take pity on me.” Quartz’s gaze hardened and his words had an angry edge to them, Applejack was about to tell him how she was sorry for him but a simple hoof on his shoulder from Obsidian got him to calm down and he continued on. “The four of us were stuck together, even though if you can believe it we did not like each other. Another thing we kept from the orphanage. But our teachers wanted us to support each other and become teammates. So we could learn together and help each other if one of us was good at something that another wasn’t.”

He paused briefly to catch his breath and looked at the ponies beside him. “We learned Hoof of the Earth slowly, unlike you, it was years before we even began the basic training for it. In that time we had grown stronger and closer. And we knew nothing of the outside world, every last bit of our training took place inside the monastery and the forest. Occasionally a traveling pony would come by, or another from one of the nearby villages would come for some reason. But for the most part it was just us, the other students, and our teachers.” 

“When we were ten years old the real training began. Our teachers would forcefully fire tremors through our bodies to blast them “awake” and get them used to Hoof of the Earth. Our bodies were repeatedly broken down and grown back stronger so we could be the best we could possibly be. But I won’t deny that it was a horrific time and an immensely painful practice. Then we learned how to generate our own tremors and use the fighting art on our own.”

Applejack suddenly spoke up. “Uh, sorry but is there any reason you didn’t do that to me?”

“Yes.” Quartz answered simply. “In short we never learned how to do it the same way our teachers did. We never reached that point in the training, as you know we all have great control of our tremors but the finer arts and secrets of Hoof of the Earth are not known to us, they’re lost forever. All we could’ve done to you was send a normal tremor into your body that would just break your bones and muscles and cause more permanent damage instead of allowing them to grow back stronger like our teachers could.”  

“Well, thanks then.” Applejack gulped and thought how glad she was that she was able to instinctually throw Quartz’s tremor out of her body back when she first met them.  

Quartz nodded. “Yes, but now I’m getting ahead of things. Back to where I was. We had started to officially become disciples of Hoof of the Earth and the next year was spent almost entirely the same way, in agonizing pain. Luckily all four of us made it through that part, thanks to our strong bond that was forged over the past 6 years. There were other students who simply couldn’t handle it.”

Applejack grimaced at that, hoping it wasn’t as bad as she thought.

“We were quickly becoming the prized students of the masters. At thirteen we were fully recognized practitioners of Hoof of the Earth. I thought nothing could touch us, we were just simple earth ponies but we had the power to shatter boulders with a single touch. We all felt powerful. Every now and then we were even allowed to leave the monastery and go out on our own, visiting the villages on the other side of the forest. It was a sign of trust, not only that we could handle ourselves but that we would come back. And we always did. Now it wasn’t about pain or endurance but about what we could do with Hoof of the Earth, how precise our tremors could be, how powerful. It was freedom.”

Quartz paused and closed his eyes, as if preparing himself to say what came next. “Like I said, we felt powerful. But we weren’t. We were still foals who knew nothing about the outside world, not really. It was when we were 15 that things changed. When we truly saw the world outside of our monastery. It was then that we learned of Wings of the Wind.”

Obsidian had begun trembling, she lifted a shaking hoof up to her face and pressed it against her hair covering her blind eye.

“So… some history first.” He continued. “As we told you, Hoof of the Earth was developed by earth ponies in a time of conflict and war as a way to attempt to level the playing field against unicorns and pegasi. It worked well in more ways than just direct combat. Warriors would secretly slip in to unicorn towns and destroy buildings, our users could use the art to carve hideouts in the ground much like this monastery, things like that. It also simply made unicorns and pegasi afraid to even come near earth ponies, for the slightest touch could cripple or kill them. Now with their magic and control of the weather and such, if it ever came to a big direct fight earth ponies still wouldn’t have a chance, but with Hoof of the Earth they fought to their strengths.”

Applejack leaned in, taking all this in stride and quite happy that she got to live in a much more peaceful time. Relatively at least. Good enough that ponies didn’t fight each other like that anymore.

“So it was that pegasi warriors eventually started to develop their own unique fighting art. Pegasi were very prideful and they didn’t like the idea of earth ponies being able to do something like Hoof of the Earth when they had no counterpart of their own. Hoof of the Earth was something only earth ponies could do and it was developed by ponies finding their unique strengths and abilities and turning them into a weapon. The pegasi did the same thing and Wings of the Wind was born.”

“So what exactly is it? It’s something only a pegasus can do?” Applejack fidgeted uncomfortably at seeing how mentioning this subject clearly brought up such bad memories in the four disciples. Obsidian still shook while Marble had an angry frown plastered on his face as he stared at the ground. Quartz and Bedrock’s eyes were sharp and focused, they normally being so calm and collected it was a surprise for her to see them like this from a simple story.

“Using their unique gifts as a pegasus they are able to collect and manipulate wind around their wings.”  

“And?” Applejack tilted her head. “Is that all?” She scratched her head in puzzlement.

“I assure you it is much more dangerous and powerful than you think.” Quartz raised his hoof to his face to point out his scars. “These were a small gift from Wings of the Wind. A pegasus using it can have the wind around their wings turn razor sharp, they can cut through anything with them. Stone, steel, anything. Being wind it’s practically invisible and a skilled user can direct it outwards much like we can with our tremors. Some can create powerful cyclones with their bodies too to cause greater destruction.”

“For years and generations the practitioners of Hoof of the Earth and Wings of the Wind fought each other. It wasn’t until the three tribes found peace that the rivalry began to lessen. Even then it was still many years before the fighting between the two arts stopped completely. Both were very prideful and wanted to prove the superiority of one over the other. So even when the wars were over and the unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies were friends our two groups had a long way to go.”

“It sounds like it stopped being about survival and helping earth ponies for you.” Applejack cut in. “Y'all wanted to prove yourselves.”

“Quite so.” Quartz nodded. “Hoof of the Earth users wanted to show they were better and stronger than the ponies who once pushed them around. Wings of the Wind users wanted to keep their feeling of superiority.”

“And everyone else got on with their lives.” Marble snarked.

“Anyways.” Quartz started again as Obsidian nudged Marble to keep him quiet. “Eventually our two disciplines did start to develop a better relationship. A couple more peaceful masters on each side who didn’t want a pointless conflict to continue laid the groundwork for the rivalry to become a friendship. Still a long time would go on before anyone could call our relationship a “good” one but eventually Hoof of the Earth and Wings of the Wind became friends. They started to celebrate each others strengths and abilities, the two arts came to respect one another. Still their sheer differences kept them from ever becoming too close, and their nature made it impossible for one to really learn anything from the other fighting art. This era of mutual respect and distance went on for hundreds of years. It was at the end of this time that we were brought into Hoof of the Earth.”

“You see there was something we didn’t know, something our teachers hadn’t told us. That centuries ago it was ordained that every ten years the two arts would come together in a friendly celebration. To celebrate the lasting peace between two former violent rivals.”

“Uh, I take it that something went wrong at yours.” Applejack said, unpleasant thoughts swimming in her head.

“That’s putting it lightly.” Bedrock answered, snorting.

“Yes. So to start with the four of us were going to be central figures in the celebration.” Quartz continued. “This time the celebration was held here at our monastery, the previous one was at the Wings of the Wind monastery, none of us ever learned just where their monastery was though. So when the visiting masters and students of Wings of the Wind came it was initially quite an amazing experience, the four of us had never even seen a pegasi before at that point in our lives. Our masters greeted each other, it was all smiles and bows. Although we had briefly been taught the history of our two arts to prepare for the celebration we never would’ve believed that we were once vicious rivals.”

“Things started with a ceremonial demonstration of our abilities. We shattered boulders and carved sculpture from them, the pegasi would do the same only with cutting instead of our tremors. Stuff like that. The younger students on both sides who had never seen the others were all in awe, ourselves included. We talked and made friends with the Wings of the Wind students who were our age.” Quartz paused while glancing at Obsidian. “Most of them at least. Obsidian, would you like to take over?”

She inhaled deeply, still shaking slightly. Bringing her hooves to her chest she took a few more breaths and steadied herself. “Yes. I’ll be fine.”

“There was one particular student of Wings of the Wind, named Night Storm.” Obsidian now told the story, Applejack listening to her with rapt attention. “He and I were meant to partake in the last performance of the celebration. A match. Not any true fight though, this was meant to showcase how students of the two arts fought without actually using Hoof of the Earth or Wings of the Wind. It was more of a show than anything. Or at least it was supposed to be.”

Obsidian had begun to shake again, but she focused herself and continued on. “Night Storm seemed friendly enough, he was all smiles and seemed to enjoy the other performances during the celebration the same as any other pony. The masters of Wings of the Wind had introduced him as their star pupil, so initially I was ecstatic that my teachers had chosen me to participate in the ceremonial match with him.”

Obsidian was trembling with each word and this time Applejack did come up and gave her her hoof in support. “What happened?”

Swallowing, she continued. “The masters called for the match to commence, I took a single step and the next thing I knew I couldn’t see anything out of my right eye and I was falling to the ground.”

Marble closed his eyes and shook in anger.

“I heard screaming, in horror, in anger.” Obsidian looked Applejack directly in the eyes. “And I felt something warm pouring down my face. I brought a hoof up to my eye, wondering why I couldn’t see anything out of it, and then he walked up to me.” She grit her teeth, tears welling up. “I still remember his face, that same smile as always, like he didn’t have a care in the world. And I remember what he said to me- “Sorry, I saw something strong and I just had to destroy it.”. And that was it.”

Quartz took over again as Obsidian quieted down, wrapping her hooves around her shoulders. “When our teachers saw what had happened some of them rushed out to attack Night Storm, naturally the Wings of the Wind masters went to his defense, even though they as well were horrified and disgusted at what he had just done.”

“Fighting almost broke out. Marble, Bedrock and I of course also went to attack Night Storm but our own teachers held us back. It took some fierce groveling and apologizing, and a promise of severe punishment, but the Wings of the Wind masters were able to pacify our leaders. And Obsidian’s wound was luckily not fatal, if it had been I can’t even imagine the fight that would have broken out right then and there.” Quartz’s eyes drifted around the room, as if he was trying to recall something from long ago. “While they were leading themselves away Night Storm looked over at me, when our eyes met he just smirked and chuckled. And it wasn’t for several more years that we saw him again.”

“I’m really sorry about what happened to ya, Obsidian.” Applejack said to her. “And all of you, having to deal with that fella.”

“If only that was the end of it.”  Quartz said solemnly. “After that our lives more or less returned to normal, although it took Obsidian a long time to regain her confidence and learn how to fight effectively with only one eye. We started to go on more trips outside of the monastery, lending our services to others, getting practical experience with Hoof of the Earth. I enjoyed helping ponies, especially after seeing what happened to Obsidian and the danger of what a bad pony could do with such power, we all became our “do-gooder” selves during this time.”

“Glad to hear you didn’t just go clawing for revenge or anything.” Applejack gave them a sad smile.

“Oh we definitely wanted revenge, we just knew there was nothing we could do about it.” Quartz got up and began pacing back and forth. “Now comes the bad part. When Night Storm returned to the monastery. Alone.”

“Alone? Wouldn’t he be worried after what he did?”

“He’s not the type to get worried, for good reason.” Marble interjected.

“Yes, it was a normal day for us.” Quartz said. “We were all off doing our own thing, I was in the forest. And he just came down and landed right in front of me. He must have seen me from the sky. Needless to say I was rather shocked, of course I recognized him but I just never thought I’d see him again like that. He had that same smug smile plastered on his face.” Quartz growled angrily at the memory. “I held back my rage enough to ask him what he was doing here. He said he had finally gotten bored of his masters and killed them.”

“What! He did what?!” Applejack yelled, jumping to her hooves.  

“My reaction was the same as yours. He said he learned all there was to know about Wings of the Wind and he wanted to prove his strength. So he killed the masters and other students of Wings of the Wind, all of them. All he cared about was being the best and proving it.” Quartz and the others had all started to shake with rage as he relayed the story to Applejack. “And so… now he came to us, to prove his superiority over the art of Hoof of the Earth as well.”

“So he...” Applejack didn’t want to finish her question, too horrified at what she knew was coming.  

“The first thing he did was attack me, that’s how I got these scars. He left me alive though.” Quartz brought his hoof to his face to feel the uncountable scars there, his face must’ve felt so much harder and rougher than a normal one. “He remembered me too and wanted to simply humiliate me. Then he went inside the monastery… and that was the end of Hoof of the Earth. Every other student and master besides the four of us were killed.”

“Bedrock and I weren’t there at the time, he might’ve killed us too if we were.” Marble said, chewing at his wispy mane while Bedrock’s brow furrowed in anger.

“I was in the monastery.” Obsidian told Applejack through closed eyes. “He saw me too but said he was doing something different today and didn’t have the time to deal with me. He just made me watch.”

“After he was finished he told Obsidian that I was still out in the forest, he said if any others were alive that was fine too. He wanted word spread about what he did, something we most assuredly did not do.” Quartz took up the role of speaker again. “He left and Obsidian and I waited for Marble and Bedrock to return. And from there we took up our new lives, there was nothing else we could do. We didn’t know where to find him and even if we did he would probably just defeat us. The monastery had been wrecked, the masters dead, our teachers and comrades, Hoof of the Earth was finished.”

“I’m, I’m so sorry...” Applejack could offer nothing else but simple platitudes, she could feel her eyes watering from their story.  

“I wouldn’t say that just yet.” Quartz said sadly, looking at Applejack with an unreadable expression. “Now… now we’ll get to why I said you might be upset with us after you learned everything.” Quartz took a breath and continued. “At first we just needed to get back on our hooves, we would go to some of the nearby villages and help out, do whatever odd job was needed, lend our aid and talents. For a time it was peaceful.”

“And then he came back.” Marble stomped a hoof on the floor in frustration.

“He came back and attacked us again, but not only us. He attacked the villages and killed some of the ponies who tried defending their homes. He destroyed buildings and farms, whatever he felt like. Again he defeated us, the four of us couldn’t do anything, and he told us that he was looking for things to fight but got bored so he came back to find us. He told us that he wanted to ruin everything we did, destroy what we cared about, because he found it fun. And he’d keep letting us live because of that.”

“Soon after that we weren’t exactly welcome around the villages anymore, we left and started journeying across the world, helping who we could and hoping Night Storm wouldn’t suddenly swoop down to destroy everything. Sometimes our hopes were dashed. That’s why we don’t stay in one place for too long, he’s always been able to find us. He’s made it his personal mission in life to ruin ours. We think he ran out of tough opponents to fight after eliminating Wings of the Wind and Hoof of the Earth.”

Obsidian sat up and walked towards Applejack, tearfully looking at her. “This is what we regret doing to you. Because you’ve traveled with us and because we’ve taught you Hoof of the Earth there’s now a target on your back.”

“I’m sorry.” Quartz said as he walked up side by side with Obsidian, Marble and Bedrock forming up behind him. “We were selfish and we kept this all from you. We… initially we were content to let Hoof of the Earth die with us, and we didn’t want to bring any other ponies into this. But when we met you… your innate ability. We had to teach you.”

Applejack looked between the four of them, mouth opening and closing before her eyes narrowed. “This… this is why you all looked so guilty when you thought we were about to get to Ponyville. Cause you knew he would find you and me and you thought he’d end up attacking my home.”

Quartz nodded. “Yes.”

“A target on my back.” The thought seemed to fully hit Applejack. “I, I have a family you know! You kept all this from me even though you knew the danger, even though you knew it would mean a maniac coming after me!” She shouted at them, her sympathy for them replaced by anger. “You lied to me.”

They at least had the decency to look ashamed.

“We’d like to keep training you, if you want.” Quartz said, reaching a hoof out to her. “I hope it never has to happen but you may need it to fight Night Storm.”

Applejack swatted his hoof away.  

“I… I just can’t believe you’d be so selfish. You didn’t even think about me or the consequences. I have a little sister, now she might as well be in danger too for all I know. As if I wasn’t worried enough about her with being gone so long.” Applejack looked down at the ground, dejected. “You know I thought of you as my friends? I trusted you even when I thought you were hiding something, I figured it was something personal that was eating you up. I didn’t think it was this.”

The four disciples didn’t know what to do, they could just stand there in shame, sobered by Applejack’s words.

“I can’t even look at you right now.” Applejack tilted her hat over her head and walked past them, further into the great hall. “I’ll find a room for myself.”

It was late in the night. All they could do was watch her go and hope they could fix things between them. For they knew Night Storm would find them again soon, he would find out about Applejack, and she needed to be ready.