Azure and Wind Scribe streaked over the treetops making a beeline for the tallest peak of the mountain range ahead of them. They had been flying for the past few hours, constantly on alert and heading for the northern border of Canterlot.
"Can we... stop for a moment? I need to... catch my breath..." Wind Scribe managed to pant out.
"Sure... I need to... as well," Azure responded in a similar state.
Simultaneously, their gazes turned downward as they scanned the wood below for an easy place to land. Their effort paid off as they came across a clearing, a few large boulders dotting the open space. With the ease of well-accustomed fliers, they flittered to the ground and sank to their haunches, breathing hard.
“Oh man, my wings are aching,” Azure tentatively gave his wings a flap, feeling the tired muscles protest to the abuse, and panted, “How long... have we been... flying?”
Among his various studies, Wind Scribe studied up the reading of celestial bodies for an accurate read on time and location during flights. With a sigh, he managed to deduce the current time and came up with an answer.
“A couple hours... Three, to be more accurate. I believe we’re just upon the northern border of Canterlot so I think we can take a moment to rest.”
“Way ahead of you.”
The light blue pegasus flopped to the ground. He relished in the relief of his wings lying limply by his side, letting them have the rest they deserved. Opening one eye, he watched Wind Scribe do the same, though in a little more dignified fashion.
From his position on the ground, Wind Scribe observed a line of ants scurrying back and forth along a path they had predetermined, however long ago that was. For a moment, he was content to just watch the blissful ignorance of the simple creatures carry out their life jobs, but this trail of thoughts led him back to his; to the job and life that were stolen from him so swiftly that it had jarred his very soul. How he wished for this blissful ignorance himself, to never know this tearing feeling tugging at his heart... it was all he wanted at that moment.
Azure glanced sideways at the gray-coated pegasus to his right, an empty, solemn stare into space dulling his green eyes. He could feel the despair emanating from the stallion and simply had to pull the older stallion out of what pool of misery he was sinking into. So he spoke, albeit a wee bit louder than intended, “Hey, Wind Scribe. You okay?”
It was a flimsy question, but it was talk all the same, and it did seem to bring Wind Scribe back to Earth. He shook his head a bit and turned towards Azure, “Huh, did you say something?”
Wind Scribe forced his lips to smile at Azure while the latter tilted his head slightly. He could tell that the young pony saw through the calm facade he tried to implant upon his face, and the question that was asked confirmed this.
“You look worried... are you okay?” Again, Azure felt that his words and entire tone were feeble and out-of-place, but he voiced them anyway.
“I’m fine,” he said, trying to smile harder, but the stutter that interrupted his word betrayed him, “I just- I just wish this was all just a dream. The Changelings, Cloudsdale; I feel like I’ll wake up any second now in my bed with just another pleasant day ahead of me.”
Azure’s ears folded back in resignation; a gleam of understanding on his young face, “I hear ya, I was just about to ask this one filly out tonight—” Azure cut through his words quickly, realization dawning upon him as the words left his muzzle, and a harsh blush soon followed.
Wind Scribe chuckled at the Azure’s reaction to his own words, Wind spoke gently to soothe the shy airs of the colt, “Trust me, there’s nothing shameful about thinking about mares. Tell me, who’s the lucky lady?”
Azure wanted nothing more than to bury his head in the ground rather than talk about his love life, even with what little there was of it at least. After all, this small detail was a deeply-hidden secret that not even his best buddy, Frosty Mist, knew of, let alone to a complete stranger. Feeling cornered and with no hope to escape the explanation, he ventured on hesitantly, “Her name’s Daisy Chain. She’s a pegasus that worked in the Rainbow Division back in Cloudsdale. She’s unbelievably cute and a lot smarter than most ponies give her credit for. She was the one to cut down the scheduled work time it takes for rainbow fermentation by nearly an hour.”
Wind Scribe was honestly impressed by this. Like many colts of this young age, Wind Scribe expected some form of blind crush on some scatter-brain pretty pony, but what was just confessed before him gave Wind Scribe a glimpse at what it was it that Azure saw in this mare.
“How about you, you have a special somepony?” Asked Azure, a bit too innocently.
Wind Scribe winced at the question that was meant to reflect back on him. He decided to give the colt enough mental space to breathe easily and regain his usual blue color back by answering, but the mere thought of the answer almost made him cringe again, “Yes, I have a wife. Her name is April Showers, and the two most wonderful foals in my life are Rosewing and Greendaze. They are the most important ponies in my life...” But the remainder of his words were only audible to Wind Scribe in the confines of his thoughts, “...I hope they are ok...”
Azure could see that the conversation was drifting toward a touchy subject; the lines of heartache creasing the older stallion’s face, so Azure backtracked to a safer topic, “Uh, so you mentioned on the flight that you worked in the archives, right?”
The change of topic was apparently much appreciated by the older stallion as he dropped back into the exchange, “Yes, the ‘Cloudsdale Weather Archives’, grand weather anomalies division.”
“Wow, that must pretty interesting,” Azure replied enthusiastically; doing his best to keep them from straying down darker matters.
“Not like most ponies would think.” Wind Scribe replied casually, “A lot of documentation and revisionary tasks and such. Though I love to read up on flight charts and Equestria’s weather history; I once was hoofed a scroll that needed a revision on the 4th century hail storm of Trottingham that nearly wiped the city off the face of the map. Back then, practical weather manipulation had not been perfected to the degree it is today, so pegasi were only able to guide small fronts of storms at a time while larger storms were left to their own accord.”
Not wanting to elaborate more on that particular part of history nor the documents that detailed it as it brought acutely back the memories of when he first met his wife while searching for those files, Wind Scribe asked, “Tell me, you said you have a family in Canterlot?”
“Yeah.” Answered Azure. “My twin sister’s a unicorn. She got a scholarship to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. My mom and dad were thrilled when she got it...”
“But you weren’t?” Wind Scribe prodded, lowering his head slightly to gaze up at the troubled eyes of Azure as he went on.
“I know it’s selfish, but I... I didn’t want her to leave. Of course, I wasn’t going to keep her from her dreams so, after she left, I tried to keep living life as if everything was normal at home but... It was anything but normal. Finally, after almost two months, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I packed up and left home too.”
“At first, I left for Canterlot.” Azure continued after taking a deep breath, “Of course, I was able to see my sister up at the school, but it was really hitting my wallet hard. Most of the weather teams in the capitol are made up of unicorns, which was a surprise, so I had to leave with what little work there was for me. Not much later, I managed to pick up a job at the Cloudsdale Weather Factory and found an apartment nearby. It wasn’t too bad and I could go visit my sister every now and then when I saved up enough Bits. I finally felt like I could settle down, at least for the moment.”
Wind Scribe could understand the young stallion’s words better than he knew, so as the silence stretched on, he volunteered to continue the conversation, “I was a lonely child once too...” Not wanting to fall back into the dark silence of his thoughts of the fall of Cloudsdale, so he went on, “And my family is all that I had… have, I mean.”
“Oh, don’t worry.” Answered Azure, a bit too cheerfully to be entirely convincing, “It’s gonna be alright. Once we reach Canterlot, the Princesses will take action and restore Cloudsdale. I’m sure of it.”
Wind Scribe smiled in return. He appreciated the young colt’s efforts to cheer him up, but he had to remind himself that he, as the older pony, should be the one to do the cheering-up business. So, to take the dark thoughts off his mind, he suggested, “I know we only just landed, but we best not stay here much longer. Those things might be looking for any stragglers they missed.”
Azure nodded eagerly in return; quite happy that the older stallion took the lead as they oriented themselves towards the east and took off. Talking was better than sitting down in silence, but flying was even better for their morale, but they were not back in the air for long before they were taken unaware and attacked.
“What the hay?!” It was Wind Scribe that caught first sight and felt a surge of adrenaline hit his system as he took a sharp bank to the left to avoid a direct collision with Azure. On the other hoof, Azure slowed down and turned to watch the incoming fireball.
"Wait! I think that's... It is! Oh shoot, look out!" Azure yelled as the fireball blazed forth and started a tight arc just overhead. The fireball followed Wind Scribe adamantly as if determined to set him on fire, the scene putting Azure into a trance. Wind Scribe flew in tight turns, short banks, steep dives and everything Azure knew of flight in his young life. Indeed, had the older pegasus not been quick and perceptive enough, he was sure that more than a few feathers would have been singed until the odd fire ball came to hover right before Azure.
Wind Scribe felt a moment of fear for Azure as the fireball flapped before him and...wondered at that moment, flapping? He thought, Is that a bird?
Wind Scribe slowly flew closer, and, as he did so, he noticed that the fireball was not round at all, nor did it resemble anything comet-like, but had wings and a beak. Further, closer inspection proved it to be a large, brightly colored bird, so he asked, "What is it?" and watched in awe of the light streaked avian.
"It's Frederick," Azure replied simply, his eyes wondering at the bird that chirped before him.
"Frederick?" Wind Scribe asked, “What’s a ‘Frederick’? I never heard it!”
Azure was pulled out of his reverie and chuckled while he answered, “It’s his name. He’s a phoenix… my sister's phoenix.”
The species of the creature finally clicked in his head. "Your sister has a pet phoenix?" asked Wind Scribe with increasing awe, “Your sister has a phoenix?!”
The phoenix in question hovered gracefully between the two, cawing in a voice that was somewhat between a melody and a natural flow of the air itself while Azure answered with a small smile, "Yea, well... technically, he has her.”
The light play at humor was lost on the older stallion as it was an inside joke that few knew, so he went on, “What I meant is that she found him when we were camping one time. He was only a chick when we found him and looked almost too sickly to do anything about. Though we stayed there a couple days after my sister pestered my father into taking care of the little guy, at least, ‘until his parents came back’. Of course my sister knew how to twist a hoof to get what she wanted, and after taking care of lil’ Freddy here, he followed us all the way back home. She's taken care of him and they’ve been inseparable ever since."
“That’s... actually pretty amazing, I thought phoenixes were nearly solitary creatures,” Wind Scribe noted as he watched the fiery bird preen aimlessly through the golden feathers of his plumage.
But what was first mistaken as a random feather care, proved to be something else entirely, for only moments later Frederick held out a folded, and somewhat slightly charred, piece of paper for Azure in his beak. The gesture appeared thoughtful, at first, and Wind Scribe couldn’t quite tell what the bird was doing with a scrap of paper in its talons, but the falling rays of sun silhouetting the faint crease lines showed him the dark outline of a letter.
To Wind Scribe, it appeared that this day was not going to end its list of surprises any time soon, so he asked incredulously, "What? Your sister trained it to carry letters?"
"Oh, no,” Azure laughed slightly, taking the folded piece of paper in his hoof, “She never trained him. He sorta' just... volunteered to do it."
“So let me get this straight,” Wind Scribe counted on his hoof, “This phoenix, which belongs to your sister who acquired the said phoenix after giving it some care on a camping trip, just happened to decide to be your sister’s pet? Decides to deliver letters just because it wants to?”
“Eeyup,” Azure said in a mock farmer like imitation for no apparent reason; feeling a bit frustrated with all the questions that carried the hint of incredulity and started to unfold the folded paper. As soon as his eyes had absorbed its contents, his expression plummeted faster than a pegasus robbed of its wings. A single weary breath escaped him.
It felt like an icy breath of a hopeless winter that froze the blood through Wind Scribe’s veins when he felt the change that just descended upon the colt. He barked, "What? What is it? What does it say?"
"I don't think...” Azure choked out, his eyes moving up from the page, “I don't think we're going to be able to get help from Canterlot," Azure finished. He appeared to be very near to a fainting spell as if the world had just ended in a blaze of cleansing fire.
Wind Scribe took the paper into his hooves, smelling the faint traces of burnt parchment wafting off the edges of blackened paper. He would have reprimanded the phoenix for such a shoddy delivery, but he held the snide remark as he saw a single word written across the center of the page. It was obviously rushed, yet somehow still a neat calligraphy for all intensive purposes. A single word that encompassed all his fears since he had left Cloudsdale:
Changelings