Wind Chaser, Chapter 4
In which Chaser discovers trees and clouds, Equestria style.
* * *
"It's just so fascinating, you're definitely a pony, but you're clearly not from this dimension!"
"Twilight? He looks just like a regular pony..." Rainbow Dash floated at ease near the ceiling
"Well that's because you're not looking into the right spectrum, see? If your eyes are adjusted to see it, everything's plain as day."
"Yyyyy-eah, Twi? Don't know if you've noticed, but... I'm not a unicorn!" Dash finished loudly.
Wind Chaser felt like a little kid again, Little foal again? Kirianna prodded. Yeah, probably... Either way, this place was perhaps his dream home, were he to retire. It was a massive tree, not high, but huge around. And carved out of it was a library! He loved every bit of it, from the furniture, to the natural finish of all the shelves and walls, the notch-cut stairs around the wall, with bookshelves carved out underneath those too, all the way up to the balconies he'd spotted that looked grown into shape outside.
The evening was warm and a little breathless, no breeze playing around to cool them down, so all the windows were open and the main rooms were golden in the light from the lamps and the dusky twilight.
His hosts... well, that really was a surprise, you couldn't have found a more varied group. After Applejack left them on the road between here and her farm, they had collected two more mares on their way here. A butter-yellow pegasus with thick, light pink mane and tail, who seemed to be skittish of practically everything (when Kirianna had made her appearance, she'd frozen up with a little bleat of fear until Rainbow Dash had shaken her out of it), her name was Fluttershy, which suited her. And the second was Rarity, who ran a clothing boutique, interesting because he hadn't noticed most of the ponies in town wearing clothes, which she designed and made the clothes for. She was a white unicorn, a shade or two into the cold white where Chaser's coat was slightly warmer, it may just have been an optical illusion because of her purple, expertly curled mane and tail instead of his own light brown to contrast with it.
Notice something? Kirianna contemplated, They've all got really pretty eyes. Ponies they may be, but... they'd make pretty cute girls under other circumstances. You're not helping things, I can't concentrate if you're throwing images up in my head.
They were staring at him.
"Sorry, Kirianna's talking to me."
"You... 'talk' to your... parasprite?" Twilight looked at him oddly,
Chaser face-hoofed See, easy to adjust from hands to hooves! Shut it, tart. "She's not a parasprite... or, well, she wasn't before. We're actually, kind of, the same person. She's a part of my personality that got separated from me a long time ago. Long story. Anyway, she looks like this now, but she's not some kind of pet."
"Rrright, and you're not a pony. Does any of this sound insane to the rest of you?" Dash exclaimed,
Chaser looked at her, mildly irritated by the snide comments now, "Fine." In one motion, dramatic as it was, he transformed, spread his wings, and met her eye-to-eye. "Now do you believe me?"
She sank to the floor, wings flat to her sides with shock, likewise the other girls were gaping at him. Fluttershy was... there was her pink tail shaking gently as she tried to hide under the table. He grimaced, that hadn't been intentional, some people, and some ponies, just managed to get to him despite himself.
Twilight was first to recover, "Amazing, I've never seen anything like it! That wasn't magic, that was... I don't even know what that was! You have to tell me everything you can, this is simply too good a chance to waste." He noticed she was levitating a piece of paper and a quill in front of her, horn glowing between her straight-cut fringe.
Magic, ah yes, magic... he'd been to a few worlds that had magic, although all of them had been the kind that people had to use some kind of catalyst for, an incantation, an object, even a clockwork mechanism in one world. Unicorn magic didn't seem to work like any of them. Twilight and Rarity just seemed to generate the magic within themselves, focus it through their horns, and then things happened. Simple as that.
"I'd rather not, Twilight, I appreciate you asking, but I just don't know enough about how my people do what they do to answer questions."
Her ears drooped, in fact her whole body seemed to droop. Then she looked at him and... those eyes! Don't look! It's a trap! Kirianna taunted him, knowing he was weak to puppy-dog faces. The eyes got bigger, and the lower lip pouted... Auugh!! Even I want to tell her everything!
Chaser sighed, "All I know is that we use energy, and all of us use it differently, it changes our bodies, and grants us powers like wings, or heightened speed and strength, and we can project it into the world in different ways. Back home, I can throw balls of energy that explode in a limited range, and even my wings are made of energy, not real flesh and blood."
"They aren't real? Then how can you fly?" Dash tried to peer at him, without moving from the spot.
"Same as you fly with yours, I can't explain it, they just work. They don't just fly either, if I don't flap they negate most of my weight, I fall really slowly, and I can stop and turn instantly without hurting myself."
"THAT'S HOW YOU DID IT!!" She yelled at him, leaping across the room to get in his face, "THAT'S CHEATING!!"
Chaser just rolled his eyes, "Cheating is when you break rules, I don't remember inviting you to chase me across half the sky." Ooh, bad move, you're getting her riled... I know what I'm doing.
"Listen you, nobody, and I mean nobody, bucks out on me!" She prodded him in the chest.
"Well if that's what's wrong, I'm sorry. I didn't expect to meet anyone, and I wasn't supposed to talk to anyone I found, it just happened. Sorry for acting so weird, so... can we move on? I don't want a silly mistake getting in the way of making friends." He met her anger with honesty, and it seemed to work, or at least to confuse the heck out of her.
"Well you can't just...! You... what?" She had been expecting a fight, a good old verbal slanging match, instead she got an apology.
"I mean it, I'm sorry for being rude. But I had a lot of fun flying with you, maybe we could do that again sometime? No cheating either." He smiled.
"I... uh..." She paused, uncertain, and then slowly agreed, "Sure... why not? I guess I had fun... too. Yeah, why not?" She brightened up.
Chaser used Charm! It's super-effective! Kirianna announced in her best dramatic voice.
The other girls had watched the exchange like a tennis match, back and forth, and even Fluttershy had pulled herself out from under the table to see the finalé. All of them were staring at him as he managed to diffuse the hot-headed pegasus. Into the silence, as Chaser looked around to see them, Twilight cleared her throat.
"Yes, well, now that that's, uh, out of the way, you mentioned energy? For your wings? Is there any chance I could examine them?" A pair of glasses floated onto her nose as she raised the quill and parchment again. Chaser felt the urge to look for a quick exit rising.
"Uh, sure, you won't really be able to do much, they repel pretty much everything." He spread a wing as she trotted over, parchment and quill in her wake.
"Let's see now," Her horn glowed a little brighter and a patch of similar glow appeared along the fore-edge of his wing, "that's odd..." The glow slid around like butter in a frying pan. "What if I..." His whole wing lit up, her face looked like it was straining against a weight.
"Don't push yourself, these things can stop artillery." Twilight ignored him and the magic appeared to contract. She moved from one end of the wing to the other, the purple haze running back and forth trying to find purchase on the white feathers until she hit the joint at his back.
Chaser gasped, "That tickles!"
"What?" She lost concentration, the magical haze swirling round and round the joint,
"S-s-stop it!" He shifted his shoulders around, trying to shake the feeling, "That feels weird!"
"Chaser, I'm bringing tonnes of pressure to bear on the surface... and you say it tickles?"
With a snap of air and a gasp from their owner, both wings stood straight up away from his body.
Rainbow Dash collapsed laughing, "Ba-hahhaaah!" She pointed and laughed, "Now I -hah-hah!- now I know you're no pegasus!" She clutched her sides, "No guy would let a girl -puhah!- play with his wings just like that!"
You know, I think she means that wings are- Shut it. Tart. I figured that much. Chaser's cheeks were slightly flushed.
"Oh my, Wind Chaser, are you alright?" Rarity asked,
"Ow..." Twilight rubbed at her nose where his feathers had flicked her,
Pinkie was confused, turning her head almost completely over to peer at him, wondering what happened, and Fluttershy had a hoof delicately over her mouth, her eyes were softly sympathetic, but amused nonetheless.
"You done?" He gave Dash an amused look, lowering his wings, he could take a joke, but she was seriously busting up until he managed to fold his oh-so-amusing wings flat back to his sides.
"He-he, yeah, am now..." She chuckled a little more, but mostly trailed off.
"Interesting," Twilight made some notes, "I didn't know there was that kind of muscle response, I might look into that later... hmm... I wonder if it works on fillies like it does on colts..."
Unfortunately, this set Dash off all over again.
* * *
Back in his regular form, regular pony form that is, things improved again. Apparently the fun Twilight's accidental reaction caused was complete compensation for Dash, when she'd recovered from her laughing fit she'd offered him her hoof again and said she'd probably take him up on that offer of a race or two.
Twilight's questioning was neatly sidestepped and Fluttershy was no longer hiding from him, Rarity seemed to be thinking hard about something and Pinkie seemed content bouncing around and around in a circle off to one side. All positives.
"Well, it's getting late, I should probably find someplace to stay." Chaser prompted, starting to stand,
"Oh, right." Twilight nodded, "Wait, you don't have anywhere to stay yet?"
"Nope, I've only been in this world for a day, remember? But it's a warm night, I won't be too put out if there isn't anywhere."
"So you think you'll just, what? Sleep on a park bench?" Dash snorted, "What for?"
"I honestly don't mind, I've had worse." Chaser chuckled, a wry smile cracking one side of his face,
"Chaser dear, we simply won't allow it, what kind of ponies would we be if we couldn't offer a guest someplace to stay?" Rarity fluffed her hair, face telling everypony that it should be obvious.
"Say, how long can you stay a pegasus?" Rainbow Dash sounded like she was thinking of something,
"As long as I like, sometimes I accidentally transform when I'm asleep, my body prefers the transformed me to the regular me." He didn't see where this was going.
"Then you can stay with me. It's ages since I've had another flyer to talk to. I mean, Fluttershy's okay an' all, but she makes bunnies look like better stunt-ponies."
"You transform when you're asleep?" Twilight enquired,
"Yeah, it's a little embarrassing sometimes, back home I have to keep buying extra sheets since they keep getting torn by my wings or by me growing bigger." He scratched the side of his neck to cover for his mild embarrassment,
"Oh my. Maybe staying with Dash would be safer, at least clouds are easier to replace than bedsheets."
"Ooh! Ooh! Chaser! You totally have to come with us tomorrow!" Pinkie stopped bouncing, somehow ending up right next to him.
"Tomorrow? But Pinkie, aren't we going-" Twilight was interrupted, actually even a jet engine would have been interrupted by Pinkie's enthusiasm.
"TO THE BEACH!" The pink menace blasted, Chaser winced as his ears started ringing, "We're having a beach party tomorrow, all of us are going, but you know what I say about parties and that's 'the more the merrier', and Chaser's new in town so we can make it his Welcome to Ponyville party! Well except that we wouldn't be in Ponyville, 'cause we'd be at the beach, but still! A Welcome to Ponyville party and a beach party all at the same time, it's PERFECT!"
And we thought the new team was a handful, Pinkie's in a whole other league... Can I dye my hair pink? No, your hair would fall out before the bleach was done lightening it.
"I don't want to impose on you girls, it's fine, as long as I know where to find you in case of an emergency."
"Impose? Don't be ridiculous, dear, it sounds like a marvelous idea. Do come with us, Wind Chaser, I insist." Rarity's tone made it non-negotiable.
Do it! "In that case, it would be my pleasure," Chaser gave in with a smile and a polite bow of his head, which the fashionista demurely answered with a smaller nod and a smile, "thanks for inviting me, Pinkie."
"YAYY!! C'mon Fluttershy, lets get those inflatables finished!" A pink blur rushed around the table, grabbed Fluttershy by the hoof and was gone, trailing a frightened mewl of panic from the yellow pegasus being dragged in her wake.
There was a muffled thud from upstairs and a small voice called "Unh... Twilight?"
Her head jerked up and around to the stairs, "Oh no, we woke Spike," She quickly crossed to the stairway, stopping halfway up, "and you might want to head home girls, it's getting late, I'll see you all in the morning!"
Dash and Rarity bid her goodnight as she disappeared from view, whoever Spike was, he sounded young, did Twilight have a son? She doesn't seem anywhere near old enough... younger brother? Guess we'll find out tomorrow.
* * *
This was going to be so cool! Wind Chaser was probably the coolest pony to hit Ponyville since herself, she finally had somepony to talk to about trick flying, and those wings changed everything.
Tricks must be so different with wings that let you float a little, no gravity drops, longer vertical stall times, even simple tricks like a loop-the-loop had to need some re-thinking.
She barely noticed Rarity saying goodnight to her, although Chaser just had to be polite, what next? Offer to escort her home? Blegh... But then he transformed again.
What. A. Pony. Sometimes she looked around Ponyville and wondered what the other guys would be like if they could fly. There were a few male pegasus ponies around, but they were all boring, working stiffs, none of them had that... spark, that love for flying. To them it was just... what they did to get from place to place. But there were a few earth ponies, or unicorns, that looked up at her flying sometimes and she knew, she just knew, they'd love it up here.
And what she had now was the best of both, an earth pony who knew what it was like to fly, and he loved it.
Chaser shot by her in mid-air, bringing her back to reality as he laughed, "Oh-hoh! It's like that is it?!" She grinned and tore after him.
The moon was rising and Chaser's white coat stood out by a mile in the night sky, she caught up and turned in mid-air, back-winging to keep momentum. She put her fore-hooves behind her head and grinned, daring him to do better. He must have seen the look through the darkness, because his flight path ducked down and to the side. A moment later he ringed her with a barrel roll, then another, and another, circling her in perfect sync as she posed in flight. He finished up in exactly the same pose as she held but upside down above her head! He grinned back at her, his path holding him a mere foot over her.
That's it, you're going down, she thought to herself. Snapping around, she dove for the ground. She caught a windmill and spun the blades, letting go in time to shoot skywards again. She burst through a cloud full of water, speed dragging a few drops behind her, but then changed her mind at the last second. Her usual trick would be a rainbow splash from the drops, but it was moonlight, not sunlight, and he was still watching her from that silly pose so...
His eyes widened at the last second as he realised what she was doing, with a quick switch of direction, the water she dragged behind her showered him in the face leaving him spluttering and drifting groundwards like a leaf on the breeze.
It was too much, she collapsed onto a cloud, laughing her plot off at him as he swiped at his eyes and tried to shake his coat out, wafting lower to eyeball her. Somehow she knew that his angry face was hiding a smile, she'd got him good and he knew it. The tiny fuzzball, Kirianna, hovered next to his head for a second, before buzzing down below the cloud out of sight.
"Hey Chaser, what's soaking wet and clueless?" She couldn't help herself, Pinkie had told her the whole story of what had happened while Fluttershy was mean.
"You." He smirked,
"What?"
He flicked his wings and tumbled in mid-air above her, planting a buck on a raincloud Kirianna had been sneaking into place while she laughed. She was looking straight up into it as rain soaked her.
* * *
"My, how beautiful." Princess Celestia murmered, for once impressed by what she saw in this land of wolves.
"The castle of the Mikil Úlfur, bastion of the snowbound lands, Fryst Eldi." The ambassador announced.
The castle certainly was an impressive sight, blue-white stone carved to look like ice, and frosted with real ice that hung from every surface. They had travelled all day by air to reach the border and now into the night to reach the capital, their transportation resembling nothing if not a dog sled. Sixteen wolves stood still, for now, in the tracers, the rags adorning their shoulders keeping themselves and the sled poised in the sky far more solidly than a pegasus chariot, as if they were on the hills below. This vista that greeted Celestia and her guards evoked a cold awe and silence filled with the sound of freshly fallen snow.
The night hung, crystal clear, all around them, and the glittering spires of the castle, filled with fairy-light windows of warm golden torchlight, echoed it back in tribute.
Far below, there was movement as well, the roads and skyways approaching the castle were bustling with activity. Looking carefully, with a dab of magic to enhance her vision, Celestia was able to make out that none of the busy streets or air-paths were occupied by wolves.
"You must be weary from our long journey, your majesty, please, forgive me my flair for the dramatic, let us show you to your state room, the Regent will be happy to receive you formally in the morning.
"Ambassador,"
"Margeir, please, your majesty." The wolf's voice was oily.
"Margeir, why are so many of the caravans and traders from other lands? I see many species represented here, but you led me to believe that the passing of the title of Mikil was not a public holiday."
"Traders? Oh my no, your majesty, these are our work force, our labourers. While the event is not a public holiday, the weeks after it are filled with lesser events for the high born families, the well placed traders and the independantly wealthy. What you see is not celebrations for the new Mikil, but celebrations for all those that find themselves still in favour when he comes to power."
The huge sled began to descend smoothly, Celestia's pegasus guards keeping pace easily, and her two unicorn guards sitting stoic by her sides.
"Still in favour, Margeir?"
"Indeed, your majesty, we Úlfur are a rather more direct race than your own, and when good will is expressed to the Mikil Intended, in the form of visible support or material gifts, it is rewarded when he achieves power. However, if he feels slighted by a family or an individual, they may find themselves... somewhat indisposed when he becomes capable of stripping their wealth and titles from them."
"Fascinating." Celestia's face betrayed none of her outrage and disgust at the way he could speak so freely about that kind of tyranny. It grated on her very bones to consider the idea of simply... taking hard earned wealth or long standing title from a pony just because he or she had not made an offering to her when they could have. That kind of action was a mistreatment of power, but... this was not her land, this was not Equestria, and nopony could be so naive as to believe they could change an entire country by simply expressing distaste at their customs.
Her gaze returned to the streets below, teeming with the workers of five different lands, at least, as they carted supplies to the castle and the city that surrounded it.
"Workers..." She pondered,
"I beg your pardon?" The ambassador cocked his head,
"I just wonder why so many lands are represented here..."
"My dear Princess, that's a trivial matter, their lands simply pay tithe to the Úlfur, a certain number of workers, a certain quota of food and materials, it's all part of their tribute. Without us, they would be unable to rule themselves, but without them our snow covered land would never survive."
"True, Margeir. Did you know that Ponies once tilled these lands, as they do Equestria?" She said it mostly for effect, this was thousands of years ago, long past any history the Ambassador's people would have recorded.
"Why yes, I did. It was the reason our country was founded here at all. In their wake, the ponies that moved to Equestria left a land filled with possibilities for our culture, we ceased to be a nomadic species and founded our lands right here in the one place other species were unable to survive. It was quite a boon."
"Amazing." Celestia was thankfully saved from having to make more of a comment on this, as the sled skimmed to a halt on hard-packed snow and they found themselves in an immense hall, pillared and buttressed, full of sleds and milling úlfur and complete with racks where the sled team could unhook themselves from the tracers.
A young pup, barely grown into his feet, dragged a long walkway across the snow until it slid level with the steps of their sled. Celestia smiled at the gangly thing as he bowed deeply to them all, and stepped from the sled when invited. The hustle and bustle faded as the inner doors of the castle thudded closed behind them; they had arrived at Fryst Eldi.
* * *
Still laughing, Dash and Chaser made it back to her cloud house a while later.
"Forget the tree, when I retire, I want a cloud castle..." Chaser shook his head in awe,
"Pretty sweet, right?" Dash prompted,
"You've got that right... this place is... amazing." The parasprite buzzed and settled between his ears, "Kiri wants to know how you keep the wind from breaking it up."
"Heh, easy, we compact the cloud and make it all one shape, the floor, the walls, the roof, they're all the same bit of cloud, y'see? That way, it's still cloud, but it's hard, like a real house. Then we use regular cloud for whatever we want to put inside, c'mon, I'll show y'around."
Lighting lamps as she went, Dash led the way into her home. She pointed vaguely to the rainbow waterfall and pools outside, then spun through the way to the kitchen, the bathroom and the back room (where she kept all her junk) and finally to the upstairs where she actually slept. Chaser still seemed impressed at the place, but her 'tour' hadn't seemed to improve on that any, and that parasprite kept swinging around and around looking into the rooms she'd mentioned.
"E-heh, not much to it, if I'm honest, but it's home." She felt her cheeks heat up, Fluttershy was the only one that had actually visited her here, she didn't know what Chaser was used to.
"I'm amazed," He eventually said, "I feel like you've made a cloud house out of my own house. Well, except that my downstairs doesn't have walls between the living room and the kitchen, it's all one big room."
"Cool, so, you can stop down here, just pull up any piece of furniture and kick it into shape, I'll be upstairs. Sound fair?"
"More than fair, thanks for putting me up Rainbow." He smiled,
"No probs, you're the first guest I've had up here in a while. And even longer since I've had somepony to talk to about stuff I'm interested in, y'know?"
"Actually, I do. My team back home is great, but there's nobody else I can really talk to about flying, everyone that isn't like me would think I was crazy."
She sat on the sofa, waving him across, and sprawled her legs out to the side. Chaser took the other end, throwing himself down and copying her, their back hooves nearly touching on the cushions.
"Your team?"
"Yeah, I have a team of people that have the same powers as me, it's our job to keep everyone else in the dark about our existence. People having powers is a huge secret back home." His eyes were far away, obviously remembering stuff,
"That's cool, but... y'know, something's been bothering me, you talk kinda funny." It really had been niggling in her mind a little,
"Thanks, you're a real charmer." He rolled his eyes at her, but smiled, so she guessed it was a joke.
"No, I mean, you say things like 'people' and 'anybody', not 'ponies' and 'anypony' like we do. What are you back home then?"
"Hmm, guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you." He rubbed his chin, she leaned in a little, this sounded good. "So, yeah, actually, 'people' are a group of us, but our species is Humans, like you're a Pony, I'm a Human. A human is a person, many humans are people. You'd say 'ponies from Equestria' I'd say 'people from Earth'."
"And 'Earth' is your land?"
"Mm-hmm." He agreed, "Earth is the world, but it's divided up into countries, I come from a place called England. It's nice there, even if it rains a lot."
They paused, companionably, "So what else? You come from Earth, you're from England, you have a team, and you call yourselves... 'people'? What do you look like?"
He thought about it, "Ever seen a monkey?"
"Uhh... yeah, so you're a-" but he cut her off,
"No, we're not monkeys," He laughed, his voice was deeper when he was like this, not much, but it was different. "But we have hands like them, not hooves, and we walk on two legs so that we can use our hands for things while we walk."
"Okayy..." This did sound a bit weird, all she had in her head was an image of a monkey standing up and walking around,
"We don't have a coat, so we wear clothes to keep us warm and covered up, Rarity would love seeing all the fashions. And we don't have the same way of telling each other apart as you do, our manes and skin vary hugely depending on things like style or how much sun we've had or who our parents were, so we recognise each other by features. You wouldn't believe the differences between one human and another, nose shape, ear shape, eye colour, hair colour, height, weight, proportions... we're a really diverse lot."
"Annnd what about you? What did you look like?"
The conversation wound on, she kept finding interesting things in his replies, and kept asking about them. He answered as best he could, and before they knew it, the clock on the wall was striking midnight.
"Hey, wow," Dash yawned, "is that the time? Better get some sleep."
"Okay, I'll see you in the morning." Chaser gave her a tired smile, after his answering yawn.
She flapped for the stairs, flicking off the lights as she went and stopping just before she was out of sight, she saw him stretching out on the sofa. At full stretch, with those big wings, he took up the whole thing easily, even though they'd been sitting there comfortably together before. They hadn't talked much about flying, or tricks, but they'd talked about a lot. It was nice having somepony here at night.
"Goodnight, Chaser." For some reason she felt weird saying it,
"Night, Dash." He opened one eye at her, and his hoof twitched in a tiny wave, and she felt far less weird. It had been a long time, a very long time indeed, since she'd had somepony else say goodnight to her here at home.
She was nearly asleep before she realised she was actually smiling as she sank into her pillow.
* * *
Ahhh... fourth chapter, a little bit of plot expansion, a chunk of playful friend-making, and Chaser gets to go to the beach party tomorrow too.
And before you all ask, no, there's no Romance tag on this for a reason. This is friendshipping, not regular shipping. I do that too, but not now, and not here ^^
Back again soon, I hope, but maybe not. I have real life to contend with, it sucks when that happens...