Wind Chaser, chapter 11.
In which consequences are levied.
Crikey, with only my word-of-mouth advertising (not up on EQD or even linked in that many places) I've hit over 3,000 views... thankyou readers!! Loads of love to all of you.
* * *
Watching Dash had been amazing, she was so fast! Those arcing paths, in and out of the clouds, must have been to do with destabilising the storm, but they were amazing just for themselves.
Beside her, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy were all cheering her on. That was the Rainbow Dash they knew! She watched a particularly big loop, and cheered her on too.
Then they waited for the next step. Dash stayed inside this time, she didn't come flying out at another angle. That must mean her plan was nearly done, and the clouds were going to break apart any minute.
"Any... minute..." She murmured,
"Yeah, any minute now..." Applejack agreed.
"Hey... that's an odd one..." Pinkie twitched a little, "hoof-shake, hindleg twitch, bounce twice... Somepony's gonna get hit by lightning!"
"WHAT?!" All four of them demanded together, staring at her.
"Oh no!" Pinkie realised what she'd said, "Somepony's gonna get hit by lightning!"
"Dash!" Applejack jerked her head back around to stare,
"Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease, this is the first time I've really wanted to be wrong..." She twitched and bounced again, "No! No-no-no!" She begged nopony in particular.
They watched the storm, but lightning was flashing all over the place anyway, how could they tell?
"It's gone!" Pinkie yelled,
"Whaddya mean 'gone'?!" AJ demanded of her,
"It's happened! It really happened! Oh no..!" The pink pony's back legs gave out, and she plumped down onto her plot, still staring at the storm.
"No..." Twilight tried to deny it, but she knew Pinkie sense worked... She turned to stare again as well.
"Wait! Look! There!" An orange hoof pointed hard, Dash's rainbow contrail looped around the far side of the storm, low to the ground and upwards. "She's okay!"
There was a collective jump of relief and happiness, but then...
"But... that means..." Fluttershy was the one to say it, but couldn't go on.
"Wind Chaser..." Rarity couldn't say it either.
"No!" Twilight denied this one with a shout, both her friends were okay. There was no way she'd let the girls start thinking anything else. "Wind Chaser's fine. He's got powers, remember? He's got wings that can't be hurt and... and..." She tailed off.
"Yeah," Applejack caught the gist of her words, and tried to carry it through, "he tol' me he heals real fast too, so even if he did get hit, that won' stop 'im fer long."
Rainbow Dash was still flying high, but as they watched she turned and dove, heading right for them. She levelled off nearer the ground and flew for them hard. It didn't take her long to reach them, even running ponies didn't cover that much ground compared to Dash.
The tomboyish pegasus reached them and skidded to a halt on her hooves, barely back-winging at all, and crashed into her sturdy orange friend, nearly knocking her hooves over tail.
"Woah there sugarcube!" The farmer gasped, "What's-"
"Ch-Chaser! He... He's in-" She gasped for breath, "You gotta come now!" Only now did she see that her cyan friend was barely holding back tears.
Strangest of all, Kirianna, the little parasprite, was clinging to Rainbow's mane.
"Slow down, slow down there." Applejack sat the pegasus back, hooves on her shoulders, "Tell us what's happened."
"Chaser's in trouble!" Dash's voice was still coloured with desperation, modified only by the need to make them understand, "He got me out of there, but there's two wolves, and he's all burned from lightning and I don't know what he's going to do and there was so much blood and, and..."
"So he did get hit!" Rarity was stunned, and Twilight had to agree with that, he really did get hit by lightning,
"He did it to save me," Dash sagged, "I was stupid and got caught, they backed me up against a wall of lightning and he... he... he jumped right through it to get to me."
"We have to get there, then, if he's hurt we need to get him to a doctor as soon as we can." Twilight took charge, "Let's go girls!"
Before she could move off, her face was blocked by a buzzing shape. It resolved itself into Kirianna, the little creature bobbing up and down a little lethargically. She waited until she had Twilight's full attention, and then turned and buzzed off down the hill.
"Ah think she means us to follow her..." Applejack said,
"Of course! Princess Luna says they're linked, she can lead us right to him!"
"Follow that parasprite!" Pinkie pointed after her.
* * *
It took them time to get back to the storm, they'd run a fair way before, even if the floating menace had moved closer since then.
Half way there, though, the roiling clouds seemed to hiccup. It was truly strange to look at, she thought, the entire pile of clouds stopped, hitched a little as if hit with a billow of wind, and then... started to recede.
"'S it me, or is that thing gettin' smaller?" Applejack was the only one of them running that had breath to ask,
"And it's going away!" Dash observed, Fluttershy pacing her in air to stop her from rushing off ahead,
"Whaddya think happened?"
"No idea, let's just get there already!"
Twilight couldn't agree more. Kirianna was bobbing and slewing in the air, she looked kind of woozy actually, as far as she could tell, but even so it was actually a little hard to keep up with her. What had Princess Luna said... she was connected to him, or she was part of him... no, that his soul had been split into two parts. That was it. But that just made her even more worried, if the parasprite was as woozy as this, then Chaser must be hurt pretty bad.
They eventually rounded the shoulder of a hill and Kirianna was hovering. Twilight and the girls caught up, not as winded as before, but getting there.
Three wolves, and Wind Chaser. Or... she hoped it wasn't Chaser, now that she saw the strips of raw, singed hide and the burned patches of mane, but there, blackened and singed, was his cutie mark.
The scene was eerily quiet. A wolf was tied up on the ground, not struggling, but his expression so wrathful Twilight flinched even though it wasn't directed at her. The other two wolves, clad in rags and tatters of floating cloth, nursed injured legs, and one was lapping at a huge tear down his muzzle. And they were pacing, or limping, in a loose circle around Wind Chaser, collapsed between them on his side.
"CHASER!!" She wasn't sure who yelled, but it wasn't just one of them, and the two wolves turned their heads.
One after the other, they leered a predatory look at the ponies on the hilltop above them. "Looks like the tables have turned, brother." One said.
"New hostages, against this one." The other replied.
"Not... happening." Chaser stood up.
It was the single most painful looking thing she'd ever seen. His skin looked scalded, his white coat singed and bloody, his legs shaky, one of his eyes was shut and a stream of blood ran from it. And yet he stood up.
He glared at the nearest wolf, wings raising themselves as if he was a bird threatening a rival, "You underestimated me once, don't make the same mistake. Your Regent and I have a deal I intend to honour. Take your pup and go."
They paused and eyed him carefully, the bound wolf struggled briefly, at which Chaser stepped slowly over, bent his head down, and tugged the knot free. All of those watching were silent and still, the only sound was the distant crashing of the storm, and the oddly audible buzz of Kirianna's wings.
"I did not think you would do this, in truth." The wolf said, standing and flexing his ankles and wrists, "You have... my respects for your deeds, were you úlfur your name would be sung for many years for this. As you are not of our pack, when next we meet I, or my second, will kill you." Despite the low snarl that seemed to pervade his words, the wolf's voice sounded as cultured as Rarity's, it was a bit of a shock to hear it from such a savage looking creature. Especially with the polite and perfectly serious threats.
"If you think you can do it, then I'll be waiting. But you bring your fight to me, not anypony else." He swayed slightly.
"Of course. You are the one my people saw, you are the one that humiliated me for all the pack to see... I will take pleasure in tearing your throat myself." With that, the three wolves turned and followed the storm, bounding into the sky on whatever magic they seemed to posses.
Chaser swayed again, "Woah there, easy now big fella." Applejack slid in next to him to hold him upright, trying to not press on the scorched flesh, but he still let out a hiss of pain.
"I gotcha, I gotcha." Pinkie was next there, somehow on his other side without seeming to have rushed. But he gasped again, the pressure of them trying to support him sounding like it was just hurting him even more.
"Oh, Chaser," Twilight inspected him, worried, "this isn't good, why did you..." She couldn't finish the question.
He cracked his good eye open at her, "Seemed like the thing to do at the time." And his smile, though pained, was as warm as ever. Then the eye closed and he sank to the floor, Pinkie and AJ keeping him steady, while Kirianna, unnoticed, swooned away safe in the back of his mane. He was out like a light before he came to rest.
"Chaser?" AJ peered at him, "Ah think he's asleep..."
"Oh my goodness..." Fluttershy put her hoof to her mouth, "Quickly, before he wakes up, we have to do something for those burns."
Her face hardened a little from its usual case of 'I wonder what the world will do next, I hope it's not scary' into a far more dependable frown of concentration. And the side of her that tended to broken bones, bites and even bear backs, took front seat as she began giving out instructions quickly.
"Twilight, can you lift him up a bit? He really shouldn't stay on the ground. Applejack, can you go back and get one of the chariots? Pinkie, I need you to find me a few herbs, and Rainbow... Dash?" She paused.
Twilight looked sideways in the middle of her lift spell, AJ and the others had stopped mid-step as they made to go about Shy's orders. Dash had been silent this entire time, for most of it she'd been staring at the scene in something like shock, it wasn't like her at all.
"Are you alright, Rainbow Dash?" Rarity enquired, but the pegasus didn't respond.
"DASH!" Twilight yelled, which made her jump and rub her ear, revenge on a small scale for a few days ago.
"What?!" She demanded defensively.
"Are you okay, sugarcube?"
"I..." She paused, "I'm fine..." Her eyes went back to the comatose white pegasus on the ground.
"I need you to find some water," Fluttershy interjected, trying to keep things moving, "we need it to clean his wounds and make some medicine."
"Right..." Then the lights seemed to come back on in her head, "Right! I'm on it!" And she zipped off.
"And, moi?" Rarity looked to Fluttershy for her directions.
"We'll need bandages, a lot of them." Her pale blue eyes were set, sizing up her task without flinching.
* * *
"Is he... he's waking up!"
"Oh no! Make him drink this, quickly, he needs more balm on those burns and we can't have him moving."
You're such an idiot, you know that? Is anypony...? They're fine. Drink.
* * *
The heart monitor beeped, big strong and regular signals. They hadn't hooked up an IV yet, but they'd be around soon. She'd been sitting here for hours now. Talking.
"Stupid guy... Why am I even telling you all this? Why'd you have to do something so stupid anyway?" There was a pause, there was always a pause. He hadn't said anything, not even when the nurses and doctor said he was stable and left.
She didn't hear the soft intake of breath, "You're my friend." He opened one eye at her,
"What the...!" Dash jumped so hard she fell flat on her back, "You're awake?!"
"Now I am." She watched Kirianna buzz up and over the bed, swinging around in a circle and then dropping back down again, looking quite happy.
"H-how... I don't know how much of that you heard..." She climbed back up to her hooves and then to her perch on the stool next to the bed, blushing across most of her face.
"You calling me stupid, that's about it." She watched him stretch, sit up and inspect his bandages, "Were you watching over me?"
"No! The girls just..." That sidelong look, eyebrow raised, "Well they asked me to! They said we would take turns, and I should go first. That's all, okay!"
He smirked and looked away, "Anyway, you shouldn't be moving around yet, it's only been a few hours, how are you even awake?" Fluttershy said her sleepy-drink would keep him out for nearly a day.
"Takes more than a little potion to keep me down. Besides, see for yourself." He tugged back the bandage at the top of his foreleg, the one covering the burn on his shoulder.
"Wait, don't play with that!" There was white there, not red. In fact, she couldn't see a lot of the small cuts the doctors hadn't been able to bandage up in the end. Not that they really did anything more than Fluttershy had done to begin with.
"Wow... that's some tidy work, I need to thank Shy when I see her..." He examined a few of the other bandages, his neck bending in a way that should have been painful for a pony with half his neck burned to a crisp. "How long was I out?"
She sat there and looked at him, there was something... off about this. He woke up early, his coat had grown back on one of his worst burns, he was moving around and talking to her completely normally...
"Dash?"
"What?" She shook herself and met his eyes.
"How long was I out?" He repeated calmly,
"About three hours, dear, how are you feeling?" A pony in a white nurses frock and cap stepped in through the sliding door.
"Ready to fly." He answered her, and Dash stood back to let the nurse check him over.
Strange really, this day seemed like a lifetime, but it was still barely past lunch. They'd left the palace at dawn, fought wolves over breakfast, and then found Chaser before midday... And now here he was sitting up in bed and stretching at the height of the afternoon.
"Simply amazing, Mr Wind Chaser, I can't find a mark on you." The nurse had been unwinding bandages in a rush to find something wrong with him that should, legitimately, be wrong.
"I had brilliant carers." He grinned lopsidedly at the mare, who gave him a startled look, then blushed and cleared her throat.
"Ah, yes, well... You should be very grateful to the girls who brought you in, without them I'm sure you would not have had such a... miraculous recovery."
"Yeah, I owe them a lot." He looked to back to Dash, and for some reason the look he gave her was really embarrassing, her mane felt like it was trying to stand on end, her wings ruffled themselves uncertainly, and she wanted to be free of it as fast as possible.
"Hey, I'll go get the others, they'll want to see you're okay!" And she left so fast she probably blurred.
In the hallway she stopped for a moment, to get her heart-rate back under control. Why was it so hard to stay calm? She was happy he was alright, and amazed too, but she thought about how he'd been... all bandaged and still in that bed... and these words had just kept spilling out of her while he was asleep.
She'd poured her heart out, truth be told, said pretty much everything to him, and all the while Kirianna sat on Chaser's chest, like a defensive cat, watching her as she talked. Talked about her family, which she never did with anypony, talked about her life in Ponyville before and since she met her friends, how she found out that people loved a hero, but being herself was more important, how she loved reading, but that didn't make her an egghead... And then she talked about how, in as long as she'd been here, she hadn't hooked up with anypony, how she knew she was too cool for the colts and fillies all around her, and she'd been waiting for somepony who could race her, who could make her pulse pound with challenge, who... could be her hero. So why did he do it? Why would he do all of those things, and then... not... be...
"You okay, sugarcube?" Applejack, leading the others, found her there, standing in the corridor,
"You look like you ate a baked bad!" Pinkie tried to peer under the rainbow fringe to see what was the matter.
"Oh, hey guys, it's nothing." She didn't meet their eyes, but her chin stopped drooping,
"Aw, hun, Ah know yer upset about Chaser, bu-"
"Wait! Chaser! He's okay!" It hit her like a brick made of happy, and seemed to stun the other girls too, "He's awake and talking and acting like a jerk again, and his coat's all grown back and-"
"Hold up, woah!" Applejack was again the voice of calm, "What's all this about Chaser?"
"He's awake!" she repeated, "The nurse checked and all his burns are gone! He looks just as good as ever!"
"Jus' as good as ever, eh?" AJ nudged her, and she blushed,
"Just as... I mean, he looks back to normal..." Her face could only get even redder as the five girls all smirked to themselves quietly, "Anyway!" She dared the blush to go further, "C'mon, he's awake and the nurse said I should tell you girls."
With a fair bit more smirking and a couple of giggles that she tried very hard to ignore, Rainbow led the way back to the small recovery room.
* * *
"Two. Ponies."
"Yes my Lord."
"Two." The hall was silent, but for the tapping of his claws on the stone arm of his chair.
"We caught the one, she was not a threat, it was the second. The white one, my Lord."
"One?" The pause was deathly, "One. Little. Pony. Did all this?"
Every creature waited with breath held, the guards, the servants, the few nobles who were granted permission to stay and witness... Eventually, the two wolves spoke across each other, words blending as they tried to make their case once more. What came out of it was mostly understandable though, the two of them similar enough in voice that it made sense.
"My lord, he is... We could not kill him! We struck him down with lightning, and he still stood! He dove through our lightning wall and lived! Please, you cannot expect us to have done more when faced with that!" The brothers pleaded for each other, knowing their lives hung in the balance.
"I take responsibility, Lord Regent." Athelgeir had been brooding to one side throughout the interview, "Were it not for my failure, they would have succeeded."
"YOU I WILL GET TO SHORTLY!!" Jökuul roared, finally losing his temper, "And as for you two, I will spare your miserable carcasses for the sake of your talents and the service your family has given the Mikill Úlfur over the last hundred years, but you are shamed. You will report to the eastern marches and will harvest with the weather-workers there as their underlings until called for. I shall see to it that you never rise above rain-catchers until your duties to the throne are restored. Now get out." He finished, sneering.
The two wolves slunk away, bellies low to the ground in shame.
"Now. Athelgeir, son of Athelbjörn, tell me of this pegasus pony."
"Wind Chaser, my Lord, would make an úlfur clan famous. He is strong, unforgiving, never retreats from a challenge and honours his agreements even when it could doom him. Were he one of us, I would raise him on my back after a battle such as this past day. And as he is not úlfur, he is a threat, one which we should deal with at the first chance we get."
"You believe so?" Jökuul actually seemed impressed with this, his anger from before turning to furious thought instead, channeled into mental activity where it was more useful. "He made quite the impression on the rabble in the arena at least. What do you think our little Gisli will say about him?"
Without waiting for an answer, the Regent rose and padded down the dais steps. The arena was only a short walk from the throne room, as were the gardens, the baths and a few dozen other amenities the labouring classes had built as part of their tributes, but the arena was by far the favourite of the rulers of Fryst Eldi. A huge open space where all foreign magics were nullified, free from attempts of assassination or attack, anything that wouldn't be picked up by the wards, would be torn to pieces by his guards.
And every once in a while, it held something precious; the ruler of a land. He remembered the Deer, first ruler of their land, all those years ago when his brother became the Mikill. He had watched through the enchanted crystal dome as his brother had brought honour to his name by claiming their capital as his own... And now his nephew, Athelgeir, had brought himself to shame by being bested by a simple warrior in the midst of what should have been glorious conquest.
Still, all anger aside, their prize remained. His little Gisli, the immortal Princess of Equestria. And her royal guards, of course, but they were pawns to be used against her, nothing more.
He drew out his old friend, a short length of chain that fastened to his fore-paw capped by a metal collar at the end. Úlfur did not use many weapons, not when teeth or claws were more than sufficient, but sometimes it felt good to intimidate with pain implicit rather than death.
He rang the bars of the gate, almost musically in the silence, smashing the capped end of his chain into the thickest bar. Some of the pony guards had been dozing, taking turns at sleep while others watched, but all of them now stared at him in surprise and hatred. He loved the feeling of power that gave him.
"Well now, Gisli, I think it's time we had a talk."
"Jökuul." She answered him shortly, not deigning to rise from the cloak one of her guards had laid down for her.
"So stern, Gisli, I thought we were closer than that." He motioned forward one of his guards, "Bring me one of them."
The guards moved as one, unchaining the gate and grabbing the first pony they could reach, all the while snarling at the others to keep them at bay. They dragged him, kicking and bucking, out into the open and snapped a four-way hobble onto his ankles. This was a unicorn guard, snowy white coat and grey mane, his golden armour had been removed, what need of it had he now? But he looked like he missed it, very much, as the Regent paced closer to him, chain clinking and bouncing along the iced sand in his wake.
"Jökuul! What are you doing?" Celestia stood, head and shoulders above her guards, staring daggers at him.
"Who is Wind Chaser, my Gisli?" he asked, almost casually.
"I have not met him before, I don't know him." She answered truthfully,
"I see. That's a shame." He slashed his paw across his body and his chain cracked against the jaw of the guard. Being well trained, the guard turned with the blow, softening it by pulling his head along with the force, but even so he looked dazed when his head returned to watching the wolf.
"Jökuul!" Celestia's voice was half desperation, half anger, she hated to see her ponies get hurt, in any form.
"Is he a royal guard, Gisli? He is described as being an even larger specimen than these, with a winged shield on his flank. Much like some of the marks you have among your guards here." He pointed to several shields or sword-and-shield motifs he could see.
"I wish he was!" One of the pegasus guards broke in, unasked, "We could use a pony like that, he's got fire."
"Is he not then?" Jökuul's voice was light,
"He is not one of my guard."
"Pity." The chain smashed again, at the shoulder this time, and there was no way for the guard to soften that, the club-like collar caught him solidly on the point of the bone and he let out an involuntary, mostly suppressed, grunt of pain. He was breathing hard through his nose now, teeth clenched.
"Stop this, Jökuul! I will answer your questions, but you must understand, I cannot claim to have met this Wind Chaser, I do not recognise him at all!" Celestia's eyes were starting to brim with tears, she could stand this less than her guard could.
Jökuul smashed his captive in the exact same spot again, the pony groaning deep in his throat, clamping his mouth shut on the noise to try and keep control of the pain.
"You expect me to believe, Gisli, that an untrained and unknown warrior arrives to prevent our conquest exactly as it happens, despite the fact that you are imprisoned here, and is strong enough to defeat both Athelgeir and my Stormbringers and you have NO IDEA WHO HE IS?!" The last words were a shout, and they were matched in volume as he smashed the unicorn guard square in the shoulder on exactly the same spot again, this time drawing a bellow of pain from the suffering pony.
"YES!!" She screamed back at him, tears flowing freely at the pain of her guard, "By my own sun I swear, I have never met, or heard of, a pony like that in my land. My guards tell me that they haven't seen him before either, and I have never set eyes on him before this detestable day began!"
Jökuul gave her a long, calculating look, "Return him. Bring me another!"
"No!!" She ran to stand at the door as it opened, she let her guards catch their comrade as he was thrown in, and then blocked the doorway, wings flared. "If you wish it, I will take any beating you can give me, but they are innocent in this."
His predatory eyes met her tearful ones and narrowed. She was the prize, he couldn't harm her, because how else was he to use her against her sister if he did?
"I swore to my sun, the most powerful thing I hold, that I cannot tell you anything more, and neither can my guards. If you do not believe me, then take me and bludgeon me until I cannot live with the pain. It will not cause me to learn what I do not know." Despite the tears, her gaze was hard and even.
Jökuul didn't give her time to realise she'd won a small victory here, "Who is Twilight, Gisli?" He motioned for his wolves to close the gate, shutting the princess back inside with her ponies.
"My student." She replied promptly.
"Student? His interest perked,
"Yes, I taught her magic when she was younger, and now she studies in the town of Ponyville and serves as their librarian." She had to keep answering him, but she wasn't going to give him everything on a silver platter.
"And why would a warrior know a... librarian?" The sneer in his voice showed his derision of the profession.
"That I don't know. But if Twilight was able to figure out your plot against Equestria, and I believe she has, then I fully believe her capable of recruiting any number of friends to aid her in coming to my rescue."
"Rescue, hmm?" Oh that was precious, the idea that they could rescue their princess from Fryst Eldi? And a rescue led by a 'librarian'... He laughed at the idea.
Celestia remained silent in the face of his laughter, recognising that the last words had been for his own amusement, not directed at her.
"So you think that your student has teamed up with this Wind Chaser to come after you?" He picked up a lump of ice from the floor and examined it.
"As misguided as it may be, I don't doubt that it is the case." Celestia marshalled herself and tried to bury her fears for her student.
"Such a shame, then, that the pegasus hangs in our dungeons. His spirit is strong, but we shall break him soon, I merely hoped to gain something useful as leverage against him. He won't be saving you, Gisli, and if your student ever was with him, then she is not any longer."
Leaving them in stunned silence, tucking his chain back into his robes, Jökuul swept up the stairs and out of the arena.
"They got 'im?" One of her guards whispered, disbelieving.
"Oh horseapples..." Another exclaimed quietly.
"What's going to happen to us now?" A third said.
Celestia simply settled back onto the cloak, laid her head down, and let herself cry. While she'd had that laughing voice in her head, and her guards had been alight with speculation as to who he might have been, she had found hope. Now... that brave pegasus was in an even worse place than they were, and she couldn't find even a little.
Safely out of the arena, however, Jökuul rounded on Athelgeir sharply. "Take the Stormbringers, I don't care what it takes, find that pegasus and make him rue the day he challenged us."
* * *
By that evening, they had made the border with the úlfur lands. No matter what else had happened that day, they still had to rescue Celestia from the úlfur capital, that fact hadn't changed. But she was still marvelling at Chaser's recovery, even though he'd had very little to say on the matter beyond the fact that he was better.
"I heal fast. Not instantly, just... broken bones take a day, more serious injuries a little longer, anything superficial though is usually better in a few hours. I can't thank you enough for everything you did, girls, I wouldn't have been back on my feet again until tomorrow if you hadn't put in so much work for my sake."
The only thing he'd asked for was for a little bit of a hair-cut to even up his mane and tail after it had been burned. And now he, Dash and Fluttershy had flown them across most of Equestria and right up to the edge of the mountains in the space of an afternoon.
How any of them had managed it was anypony's guess, but Dash was always up for the challenge and Fluttershy had rested her wings most of the day, concentrating on her work to heal Wind Chaser, and Chaser himself hadn't so much as blinked at the challenge. If anything, he seemed fresher than the rest of them, even Applejack showing more signs of fatigue than the white pegasus.
Applejack and Pinkie had brought enough food for a decent meal, Rarity had re-packed them some warm weather clothing after the first lot had gone into Chaser's bandages and Twilight magically lit the firewood that her pegasus friends gathered.
"Wow... I'm bushed." Dash collapsed down next to Chaser.
Fluttershy yawned, still in a reserved way, but proportionally to her it was a huge, shoulder cracking yawn for anypony else. "My goodness, yes, I'm exhausted." And she settled down on the other side of Chaser.
The two of them stared into the fire, not seeming to notice the looks that their four friends were sharing with the white stallion.
"Looks mighty cosy over there." Applejack pointed out.
"Indeed," Rarity agreed, "cosy is the word I would use myself."
"Aww, but I wanted a cuddle too." Pinkie tilted her head, then noticed her friends, "What? Pegasus feather's make the best pillows."
Twilight couldn't help but giggle a little at everypony, but before she could add her comment to the mix, a soft snore interrupted her.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had both fallen asleep, leaning their heads on the big pegasus between them. The stallion in question looked at them both in turn, smiling gently, and then back up at the others.
"They've had a long day. And you four too, get some sleep. I'll wake you up if there's something wrong." He gently spread his wings and laid them over the two girls, then turned his gaze upwards to see the stars.
"You sure, sugarcube? You've had a long day too, y'know." Applejack got there first.
"Did any of you get to nap through lunch today? No. You were all rushing around looking after me. Sleep, it's my turn to look after you." His smile was encouraging and gentle.
"I wouldn't call being hospitalised a nap..." Twilight grumbled, but put her head down anyway, draping her warm jacket over her flank in place of a blanket.
"If you're sure then you're sure. But here," Pinkie placed a little plate of cupcakes in front of him before bouncing back to her own place and flopping down, "staying up late is no good without a midnight snack." She yawned too.
"Ugh... I'm going to get grass in my mane..." Rarity complained,
"Ah hush yer whinin' an' sleep." AJ groused back.
"Well I never, I'll-"
"Sleeping is quieter than that." Even Twilight felt guilty at Chaser's soft rebuke, and she hadn't been talking. Soon, though, the camp's only noise was the crackle of the fire and the soft breathing of the girls.
And Chaser watched the unfamiliar stars until the sun came up.
* * *
Whew, I over-ran my word-count goal by a little this time, but I got said what needed to be said, and put everypony where they needed to be. Next chapter... I don't actually know what I'm going to do, but it'll be fun when I do it ^^
Just as a point to any potential writers that are thinking about writing their own fan-fictions here; I'm still making this up as I go. I know the beginning, I know the middle, and I know the end. That's it. Until I'm actually finished writing, though, I have no idea how I'm getting from point A to B to C. So think about it; you don't have to know everything, you just have to know enough to join the dots any way you can.
Also, I love this see-sawing in mood, if Chaser and the girls are happy, everypony else isn't. If I give Celestia and her guards some hope, I'm terrible to the girls and my pegasus guy. And then back again; Celestia's sad, and the girls are happy. It's a new-ish trick for me in some ways; I haven't had the opportunity to use it all that much in my other writing. Fun times.
Onwards and upwards my readers.