The Stormmaster

by BlndDog

Read My Mind

Snowdrop “watched” the procession from a distance. Never had she revealed the full extent of her newfound power to anyone. Indeed, she was not sure that she knew it herself. But a new sense had opened up, so that she could walk more boldly and fly with unprecedented ease.

Cloudsdale hovered over Canterlot with all sails stowed. When news first arrived from Canterlot that Cloudsdale must return, most pegasi were against it. Most changed their minds when they learned the details.

After ten years of war, the zebras were finally defeated. Snowdrop remembered the battle only vaguely. Three months earlier she had been tasked with preparing a large lightning storm far past Equestria’s southeast border, and several other weatherkeepers had commented then on the great number of soldiers marching towards Savanna. Having no military experience herself, Snowdrop did not think much of it.

Sitting on her cloud, Snowdrop could make out the shape of the crowd. There was a parade going up towards the Royal Palace along the south road, and ponies were lined up past the city wall. Soldiers cheered, drank and claimed wreaths of cedar and mistletoe from the bystanders. The squeaking of cart wheels went on for hours, and gave Snowdrop a headache.

There was something special about the last cart. Unlike the other cages full of prisoners, this one had only one occupant. The excitement of the crowd became slightly subdued as it passed, and up in Cloudsdale pegasi were leaning over their clouds to get a better look.

“Who is that?” Snowdrop asked Sunshower when she found him in a lower cloud.

“Zecora the Doomseer,” he replied, putting a hoof on her shoulder and pulling her down as if she could see. “She was King Zebulun’s most trusted prophetess.”

“His what?”

“Exactly what it sounds like, dear,” Sunshower said. “The Zebras believe that some have the power to see the future. Prophets and prophetesses are well-respected. Zecora is famous for big prophecies. Stuff like plagues and wars… murder…”

“And she’s why we’re here?” Snowdrop said. “Why would anypony want to hear her fortunes?”

“The Noble Families all want a go at it,” Sunshower said. “You don’t believe in this stuff, do you?”

Snowdrop shook her head.

“It’s just something that has to happen. Nobility means a whole lot of strange things. Just go along with it. Not every peasant gets a chance to meet somepony like this.”

“But I don’t want to meet her,” Snowdrop said. “Why would I?”

“It would be impolite not to,” Sunshower said, holding her closer. “You were invited among the heads of the Noble Families. What would it mean if you refused to show up, especially for somepony in your position? They won’t see it as modesty. You’re much closer to the Princesses than any of them can ever hope to be.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Sunshower sighed. “Don’t be so simple, okay? You can’t keep living like you’re just another weather team captain. Ponies think you’re powerful, and they don’t care what you say. You have to be more careful. The Noble Families are easy to offend, and they’ve been watching you for years. They’re much more petty and treacherous than you think. Just humor them, okay?”

“Alright, I’ll see her,” Snowdrop said.

Zecora passed through the castle gate. The crowd closed in, trying to get one last glimpse. The last few soldiers had to push their way through a much less friendly crowd.

#

It was past midnight when Snowdrop was ushered into the dungeon by one of Princess Luna’s guards. She had not encountered either of the princesses that night, even at the banquet. At least Wing Collar left her alone, although she could feel his glare coming from the kitchen door.

“If it’s alright with you, ma’am, I’m not lighting a torch,” the bat-winged pony said. “The prisoners get really nasty when they know there are visitors nearby, and neither of us need the light.”

The cool dungeon was damper than a storm cloud and reeked of mildew despite its moderate age. Each metal door had a single slit, and Snowdrop could smell wax vapors coming from some of them. She and the guard moved silently, avoiding all attention until they reached their destination three flights of stairs below ground level. The spicy smell of exotic incense grew ever stronger. Snowdrop sneezed as she approached the doorway.

“You might want to cover your nose,” the guard said before turning the key.

The large cell was dense with smoke and uncomfortably warm from an abundance of giant candles. At first Snowdrop could not find the prisoner, until a soft shape on the mattress moved. Zecora was wrapped tightly in many heavy blankets. Only her face was exposed.

“Close the door in this hall of stone,” it said in a surprisingly deep and throaty voice. “The cold has settled in my bones.”

Snowdrop’s ears flicked. She had never heard such an accent before.

“What is this, child of the night? She is not nobility yet, is Zecora right?”

“What is she talking about?” Snowdrop whispered to her guide. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Don’t mind it,” she replied. “She’s always like this. Just ask her questions.”

“What kinds of questions?” Snowdrop said.

“About your future, I guess,” the guard said. “Oh, I don’t know… I had to wear earplugs when the others asked.”

“Well, what would you say?” Snowdrop took the guard’s shoed hoof in hers.

“I…” She looked down for a moment, and then spoke very slowly. “I want to know… Well…”

“Speak up child, do not be shy,” the zebra intoned. “You want to know if tomorrow your niece will cry. Rest assured, your sister is well. But as to long lives, only time will tell.”

“My niece?” The guard repeated. “How do you…”

She stared at the zebra with awe and wonder.

Snowdrop felt the zebra’s thoughtful gaze. It was not malicious. It was rather sad, but not in a pitying way. Nevertheless it made her more uncomfortable than ever.

“Now you know,” Snowdrop said to the guard, backing away towards the door. “It's getting late. I should leave.”

“Snowdrop of Cloudsdale, do not go,” Zecora called, standing up to the sound of anklets rattling under her pile of blankets. “Your own fortune has not been told.”

“That’s okay,” Snowdrop said, already halfway out the door. She wondered if Zecora had noticed the goosebumps on her skin. “Listen, I don’t actually care. I don’t even have regular sight, so I don’t know what I’d do with foresight.”

“Then you are the most sensible fool tonight,” Zecora said. “Such a mind in one without sight. But a fool still, I say, for not hearing your fate, though even Zecora would refuse knowledge so terrible and great.

“Listen, Snowdrop and Silverwing both. In years to come you will find many foes. Equestria will hate you and cast you out, for the princess to whom you rarely knelt. Snowdrop, Cloudsdale is an ungrateful city. To waste your love there is such a pity. But though they mock and destroy, your line will live on. And one day return to a throne and crown.”

Snowdrop found herself petrified until Zecora finished. Her voice was powerful but not menacing. She was simply telling what she knew, and anyone who could hear must listen.

“Is that all?” Snowdrop asked when the spell was broken.

“It is wise to keep these words in mind,” Zecora said with a smile. “And my last telling for you will prove true in kind. Before the next year a visitor will come, to show you her home without cymbals and drums. What comes after I leave to you, for you still think me a liar, is that not true?”

“Goodbye, Zecora,” Snowdrop said, and left the cell before the zebra could talk some more.

The guard locked the door quickly. Snowdrop though she heard a deep, knowing laugh as she went up the stairs.

#

“Snowdrop, I am here. Wake up and come outside.”

Snowdrop squeezed her eyes shut and flexed her neck muscles. A few seconds later she felt the warmth of her bed. Sunshower was fast asleep beside her. She left the bed carefully, making no sound on the cloud floor.

The early summer night was warm enough that she went outside without a cloak. Princess Luna stood alone in the middle of the empty street without a light on her horn.

“Come with me,” she whispered, holding out a hoof. “There is something I want to show you, but it might take some time.”

“How much time?” Snowdrop asked.

“Less than a day,” Luna said. “Snowdrop, you were not always this way. Ten years ago you would have come with me without question. Are you not even slightly curious? I want to show you my secret work. I am putting my trust in you once again. You know me too well to think much of this, but it is not easy on my part.”

“Ten years is a long time,” Snowdrop commented, but she took Luna’s hoof. “I guess time doesn’t matter as much for you.”

“It didn’t,” Luna said cryptically.

The two did not fly far before Snowdrop felt a change in the air. It was Luna’s magic, but the spell was foreign. The air seemed to slow down around her, until she felt like she was hovering at a snail’s pace. All the little hints of location disappeared too; she was floating in a pristine bubble.

How do you blindfold a pony who’s already blind?

“What are you doing?” Snowdrop asked, getting closer to Luna.

“This is a transit spell,” Luna said. “I invented it several years ago when I was faced with a rather daunting challenge.”

Snowdrop thought better of asking what that challenge was. After some time, she managed to piece together what the transit spell involved. She was floating in an egg of still air, while powerful wind whistled against a magical shell. With not effort or discomfort she was moving with frightening speed, and without any sense of direction.

The destination was truly distant, far beyond Equestria’s borders. Suddenly dawn broke, and Snowdrop felt a flash of panic.

“Do not be alarmed,” Luna said. “We have only gone a little while. It is still dark in Equestria.”

Snowdrop had no idea the world was so big. The sun was soon high overhead, yet she felt little of its heat. Then it was behind her, and still she flew on.

At last the bubble slowed down. The warm salty wind hit her hard when the spell was dropped. She heard Luna descending in a big spiral, and followed her closely. Waves were crashing on a rocky shore, and she heard voices coming from far, far below.

“… you’d come just a few days later, we would have something for you,” a filly was saying. “We’re still living off last year’s harvest.”

“Do you need anything from Equestria?” Luna asked.

“For once, no,” she replied. “But we still need to make more land. We were lucky last year.”

“Have the griffins given you any trouble?”

“They’ve been quiet,” she said. “We had one family living with us for the winter; they’re Goldenhands who got stuck on the coast. They left as soon as the Pass cleared.”

“You did the right thing, Gari,” Luna said, patting down the filly’s short messy mane. “Now make sure everyone’s here. I have a guest today.”

Snowdrop could feel the attention turning to her. Somehow she had not noticed most of the ponies gathered on the shore. What she thought at first to be no more than a dozen children turned out to be nearly a hundred ponies. More than half were bat ponies, though they did not wear the armor of Luna’s guard.

“Everyone,” Luna announced. “This is Snowdrop, Stormmaster of Cloudsdale.”

An excited murmur propagated through the crowd. Snowdrop did not flinch.

“I told you before, by bringing you here I do not mean to send you into exile,” Luna said in an echoing voice. “You were innocent, and you are innocent still. You will be part of Equestria’s success, and I will not cut you off from the rest of your kind. Today I must leave before noon, so make use of this time.”

The children crowded around the visitors; only a few pegasi stared at Snowdrop now, and they did not dare speak to her. Luna led the way to a one storey stone house. Inside were hay bales and a small fireplace which was unlit, and nothing else. Luna sat down in the hay and made Snowdrop do the same.

“Luna, where are we?” Snowdrop asked, ignoring the children who were still in the room.

“This is the Colony, Snowdrop,” Luna said. “I have no other name for it. These are my children. This is Magpie, and this is Candlelight.”

The children who had been speaking to Luna paused and bowed to Snowdrop.

“That colt in the back is Fly-By-Night. Don’t be shy, dear. Come forward.”

Fly-By-Night was a pegasus colt, a little younger than Wintergreen but not by much. He was rather bulky for a pegasus. In fact most of the children were built like earth ponies.

“Luna,” Snowdrop said. “Are these the children from the Canterlot Orphanage?”

Every voice fell silent abruptly. All the warmth went away. The children now gave her all their attention. Out of the crowd she picked out Gari, standing very close to another filly and glaring at Snowdrop.

“Don’t you dare speak of that place,” she said. “If you are here to take us back and lock us away again, we will drown ourselves before you raise a hoof!”

“Gari…” Luna said sadly.

“Mom, take her back to Equestria! Why did you even bring her here? What is she supposed to do?”

“Gari, go lie down for a while,” Luna said patiently. “Magpie, go with your sister and make sure she does not hurt herself. The rest of you can leave too. I will see each of you before I go, this I promise.”

Some of the children were more reluctant to leave than others. A particularly young colt cried all the way out the door.

“You should be more careful what you say,” Luna said. “Granted, that was partly my fault. I should have been more open with you years ago.”

“Luna,” Snowdrop said, “I know that you mean well. But what you are doing here… We’re not in Equestria anymore, are we?”

“There is nothing for these children in Equestria,” Luna said angrily. “My sister values only the strong! She values gold and silk and fine food! She loves loud companions and rowdy courts! And whatever that is blemished, whatever that is not quite beautiful, these things she throws out of her kingdom!

“These children were locked away for years in a shack. Every night I saw their nightmares, and their days were worse. Sick, starving, rotting in their own filth. I shouldn’t have stood by for even a day, yet I waited months. I fooled myself to think that if only I spoke louder and argued more, ponies will aid my cause. But no one would.

“Ninety-seven children were all that were left when I finally decided to do the work myself. Their minds and bodies were by then mostly destroyed. For the first year my guards and I took care of them, but even the best care could not undo all the damage. Now the forty-eight here are all that remain. After all their ordeals in Equestria, do I really do too much to give them a land of their own?”

“But these are not your children,” Snowdrop said. “You can keep telling them that, and it will never be true. Will you tell Celestia about this place one day?”

“Do not be so stiff-necked, Snowdrop! Do you think my sister cares at all about you, or likes you in any way? Do not side with her, Snowdrop. Never side with her in matters of kindness. She deceives you without lying, she is loyal to herself only, she has magic enough to drive a kingdom into the ground, but she will never be kind! Nor is she reasonable or just! Take no vow to serve her, and do not trust her!”

Snowdrop stood up, but she could not retreat. She feared the wrath of her old friend more than ever, yet it was friendship that kept her rooted to the ground. Something had changed in Princess Luna’s voice as she spoke. At times Snowdrop sensed the form of a bloodthirsty beast where the alicorn stood, roaring almost-words.

“Luna, don’t speak so rashly,” she said. “I agree with you on many things. You have always been kind to my family, and a great friend throughout the years, but how can anypony, even you, say that their plans are flawless? Your secret is safe with me, Luna, but whatever aid you may seek in this matter I cannot provide. Please, speak with your sister; about anything. Luna, something is not right with you.”

Snowdrop ducked, and felt Luna’s hoof brush her ears. Luna stood frozen in an unsteady pose, staring wide-eyed at the limb like it was not her own.

“I am very sorry,” she said blankly. “That was beneath me. I…”

“Luna, we have to leave soon,” Snowdrop said. The spell was broken; Luna resumed her slender, regal form. Snowdrop stepped off the hay pile. “Go, comfort your children. But take care of yourself too. I worry about you, Luna.”

“Save your worry for somepony who needs it,” Luna said sharply, turning around at the doorframe. She paused for a long time, during which Snowdrop heard her silver shoes shift nervously on the floor. “Wait here,” she said in a softer tone. “I will take you back to Cloudsdale in time, I promise.”

The bat ponies did not return until Princess Luna was far away. Then a large mare evidently from Luna’s guard walked into the room and leaned in close to Snowdrop.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Princess Luna has changed a lot in recent months. You were not wrong, Snowdrop. We have all noticed it. Thank you for telling her so. We cannot.”

“You must be one of her most trusted guards, if she left you to care for her children,” Snowdrop said. "Does she never consult you in these matters?"

“Perhaps I have said too much already,” she said. “Take care, Snowdrop. And look out. Something bad is going to happen. I don’t know what.”