Wind Chaser

by Thaylien

Chapter 13

Wind Chaser, Chapter 13

In which I reject the previous reality and substitute a new one.

Okay readers, sorry, that was bad of me. I should stick to the format of the earlier chapters; follow my own advice. This isn't about Wind Chaser, no matter how much I want to make it so, this is about the girls saving their princess and Equestria once again. They just needed somepony to help them along is all.

In any case, first time I wrote this chapter a very good reader pointed out how 'aiming to please' (my words) in my work resulted in an OD of Gary Stu, even if I did write it well enough that they didn't care (their words). So... scrap it, redo it for quality purposes.

* * *

"Pinkie, watch the door!" the shout came from the top of the stairs and around her the guards startled to their hooves.

The clattering of many small hooves rang down the grand stairway, hardly muffled at all by the deep purple carpet that led to the royal box, and then clopping loudly as they rounded that and came thundering into view on the lower levels.

"Twilight?" She wondered aloud.

"Princess Celestia!" And the disbelief shattered, it was Twilight, and the other elements. They slid to a stop outside the cage and their eyes flicked all over the structure, the guards and then met Celestia's eyes.

"My faithful student, how in the world did you get here?"

"Explanations later, beggin' yer pardon yer Highness." The Element of Honesty interrupted Twilight before she could begin, "Let's get this door open."

"Kirianna!" Twilight gasped in surprise, and lo-and-behold, a parasprite buzzed free from her her shoulder, "Where are you going?" She demanded of it.

The little creature arced in close to the door, hovered back and forth briefly, then attacked. The metal screeched from whatever it did there and in a matter of seconds scraps of lock fell from the door, gnawed free by the tiny, diamond-hard teeth.

"What a surprisingly useful creature." Celestia covered for her student's look of disbelief. Regardless of the trouble that parasprites meant to a community, this one had earned a reprieve, "Wherever did you get it?"

"Wind Chaser left her with us." Twilight smiled happily as she stepped aside to let Celestia out of the freshly opened prison.

"The white pegasus? Where is he? The Regent told us he'd been captured yesterday." Thinking of yesterday, she turned to check on her guards, one of whom was still injured from his beating the Regent had dished out. They were mustering outside the cage and watching the exits carefully. "Did you rescue him already?"

"Wha? Captured? Sorry your Highness, but nuh-uh, no way!" Rainbow Dash, always energetic, told her emphatically. "Chaser was with us until just a little while ago. He's still out there causing a distraction for us."

Around her, her guards cheered, with comments like 'I knew it.' and 'Darn wolf nearly had me believing it!' making the rounds.

Twilight flinched, "Kirianna says we should go, now, he's pretending to be caught."

"What? Why?!" The blue pegasus demanded.

Her student paused, "She says that... could you repeat that?" She asked over her shoulder, "Oh, right. If they bring him inside, they won't be watching outside for when we leave."

"He's letting himself get caught? To save us?" One of the guards sounded disbelieving.

"Please, that's nothing." Rainbow Dash swept her hoof out dismissively, "The dumb colt jumped through a wall of lightning yesterday, then went on to whup two wolves and send 'em running home with their tails between their legs!"

"Woah..." The guard stared at her and one of his friends gave a low whistle of appreciation.

"Course, he's still not as fast as me." The overconfident pegasus polished her hoof on her chest and admired it.

"Might we continue this conversation later, my little ponies?" Celestia knew how much her guards needed their morale boosting, but this wasn't constructive in the slightest.

"Well we can't go back, the stag warned us not to," Twilight rubbed her chin, "let's head through that door and work our way out from there. Dash, get Pinkie and catch us up."

"On it!" She streaked up over the stairs.

"Lead the way, Twilight. Captain, form up." And with that they cantered for the far side of the arena.

* * *

Twilight, Rarity and Celestia all gasped in relief the moment they left the Arena. It wasn't much, but their connection to magic had returned. Even as weak as it was, the total absence of it while under the Dome had been like missing a limb.

Two-by-two, the unicorn guards following them showed signs of the same relief, however their training didn't permit them to be as vocal about it.

"My sun... I'll never let anypony take that away from me again..." Celestia murmured.

"I can't imagine what it was like, being there for so long." her student shuddered a little mid-stride,

"That was simply horrid, darlings, let's get out of its dreadful influence and never come back."

"Then follow me!" Dash grinned, racing off ahead of them.

The first corridor was empty, and the next, hooves thundered as they ran en masse through the silent palace. Purple carpets, banners with the Fryst Eldi coat of arms, walls of blue-ice sheened stone all blurring a little as they passed. There were doors, some of which were open, but following Rainbow Dash led them into none of them, just down these two long corridors that seemed to run the length and breadth of the palace.

Actually, architecturally, that was a sound idea, it gave access to all areas of the palace in an almost grid-work layout but the corridors themselves didn't take up too much space so-

"Twilight! Which way?" Dash called back from an intersection.

"Step four, find transportation!" She called back, "We need to find some chariots or we'll never get everypony out of here."

"Great, that's helpful, where's that from here?"

"Left!" One of the guards shouted, "Chariots and sleds are in the south end of the palace, where we came in."

Dash snapped off a semi-salute and vanished down the branch of corridor ahead of them.

"I hope she knows what she's doing." Twilight said to herself, before checking on her other friends.

A door opened ahead of them, but no wolf burst out to confront them, they raced past a startled mountain goat knocking down the tray of food he was carrying.

"Sorry!" she called back, watching the guards behind them dodge and vault over the accident smoothly.

Another corner and Dash was just pulling up in the distance, she turned and came powering back towards them. Behind her a couple of úlfur were filling most of the corridor with their snarling forms.

"This way!" She yelled, barging open a couple of doors, and, as a herd, they followed her through. There was a sign up, but it was in another language, what had they called it... Úlfin? Úlfic? Nevermind. Behind them the last guards bucked their pursuers in the jaws in perfect synch, their thick hooves knocking both unconscious.

Flicker of an empty room, then they exited through the other side and an even deeper chill than outside hit them in the face, this place was frozen! Her mind couldn't process, not in this kind of cold, so she bulled ahead, trying to get through it. Odd shapes and piles tried to catch her eye, but they blurred together in the white frost and the mist that hung in the air.

Another blurry moment and Applejack burst through a second set of doors at the other end, neck-a-neck with Dash, the cold was warmed to a more manageable level. Shelves of food met her eye, storage... a pantry? Crashing through yet another set of doors, and the heat hit her like a wall. Ahead of her, Rainbow Dash arced high over a deer while AJ ducked around and under the... tray...? He was carrying a tray full of food, or what looked like it. This was a kitchen!

For her own part, she went the other way, around the back of the deer, who was now cowering from two close encounters, forming a rock in a stream of galloping ponies.

A table loomed, and she vaulted onto it, right behind Applejack and a pegasus guard who was trying to keep track of Dash. Plates went flying everywhere, a wrong-footed stomp sent a jug of some deep brown sauce hurtling end over end to splatter over a deer in a white apron and hat who was standing by a huge oven.

Everypony... or deer, or goat... Everycreature was staring in shock, they were hurling themselves out of the way as, illuminated by hot red ovens, Princess Celestia, wings raised and mane flowing, found herself galloping across the central table through their kitchen, while ponies and guards upturned everything and everycreature in her way.

A warm, heady smell of cooking was everywhere, butter in pans, onions, garlic, but... something else that she couldn't quite recognise. But whatever they'd been cooking was forgotten by the chefs in the hurtling catastrophe that was a pony stampeding exit.

"Ooh, are you baking? I love baking! Wow, your oven is big! What are you baking?"

"Pinkie!" She shouted over her shoulder.

"Yes, Twilight?" pink curls bounced into view.

"Maybe this isn't the time for that? We're trying to escape!"

"Oh, yeah, silly me!"

Crashing and bashing, followed by rolling plates and platters, another pair of doors blasted outwards. They emerged into what must be a grand dining hall, although it was empty, and they all slowed to kick pots and pans off their hooves, or shake off the splatter of sauce. The only pony untouched by the chaos was Celestia herself, although a very brave pegasus had taken a dramatic dive in front of a bowl of batter to keep her that way.

"Ugh... cream..." Rarity tried to slough the sticky substance from her side without touching it.

"Cream?" Pinkie bounced nearer, gave Rarity's shoulder an enterprising sniff, followed by a huge slurping sound as the impossible pink filly licked the entire mess off her friend's side in one go. "Yummy!"

"Eugh..." Rarity examined her coat, trading cream for Pinky Pie tongue streaks wasn't a step up to her, obviously, "I need a shower! Stat!"

"Shower when we're home safe, escaping now!" Applejack told her firmly.

"That way!" Dash pointed, shaking the last of some flour dust out of her mane, the doors at the end of the hall were due south. Their hooves and wing-beats echoed from the vaulted ceiling, the silence only otherwise broken by their panting breath.

An entrance hall met them through those doors, with a single úlfur at guard by some rather impressive doors at the end. "That's the place we came in!" A guard yelled helpfully, and Applejack bowled the surprised guard over, Rarity accidentally trampled it as she followed, carolling an 'oops, sorry!' back out of habit.

Their mad dash brought them hurtling through the broad pair of doors at the end. And they completely failed to see the steps.

* * *

When the Regent saw the empty cage, Chaser had laughed out loud. The last time he'd seen that expression, it had been on a startled terrier, and the comparison was, to be honest, hilarious.

"You know, if you're busy, I can always come back." He could feel his cheek healing a little, the blood was stopping at least.

"Guards! Where are the prisoners!" Jökuul demanded, shaking the nearest one.

"We... we don't know, Lord, we were summoned to the walls to defend the city from the pegasus."

"USELESS!!" He roared.

"What do you think, 'Lord Jökuul', did I make a good diversion?"

"SILENCE! I'LL KILL YOU MOMENTARILY!"

"Now that's no way to treat a guest, is it?" his grin was impudent, this was his favourite part of a heist; watching everything fall apart on the bad guy, "Besides, you won't kill me before I tell you how I did all this, because you're smarter than that."

"Before you... what?" Jökuul hissed, Not bad for a sentence with no sibilants in it, hmm? No, I'm quite impressed.

"Well surely you want to know, don't you? How one pegasus, all alone, was able to break your prisoners free, then attack the palace so violently that he pulled all your guards away from their posts so that the prisoners could escape." He grinned at the glaring wolf, "And you don't honestly think that I was able to simply smash the walls, knock over your towers and break your gatehouse without any kind of trick to it?"

"You will..." The regent snarled, as if short of breath, trying to keep his temper in check long enough for his prisoner to tell him what he wanted to know, "You will tell me... Everything. Wind Chaser. Everything."

Oh stop being so smug, we helped. But he doesn't need to know that. He doesn't need to know anything, just spin him a tale and get out of there.

I've got a better idea, he thought back to her, I'm bringing the roof down. You're WHAT?! I'm- I know what you said! But do you seriously expect me to believe you're that stupid? Stupid? Me? How many times has that ever worked? Bringing the roof down? Four times. Fine, then how many times have you failed to pull it off? About thirteen or fourteen.

She paused, You're crazy. I can tell you've met me.

"Okay!" He looked at his captors, voice peppy as a cheer leader, "Are you all holding on tight?"

The six wolves around him tugged on his chains angrily, if his hooves hadn't been hobbled together, they would have forced him into a four-way splits, Bambi style.

"Good, wouldn't want to lose any of you just yet. Here we go!" And with a burst of his wings, Chaser took off, úlfur guards thudding together like furry corks at the end of their chains.

* * *

Front of the pack as they were, she ended up in a heap at the bottom with Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy and two poor unicorn guards they'd pulled down with them. They slid slightly, the floor cold and slippery as ice... it was ice; a thin layer of it over stone, she cursed the fact that she still hadn't learned to skate after Winter Wrap Up.

"Ooo-ooh..." she moaned, to the accompaniment of similar sounds from all around her, "Is everypony alright?"

"Uh, Twilight?" Dash's voice was a little worried, coming from above her and a little behind, "I think we might be in trouble."

Climbing to her hooves, with difficulty, she discovered that the ominous prediction was true. Surrounding them in a loose circle were over two dozen startled úlfur and even more attendants from different species interspersed among them. Further back, on a raised walkway, she could see even more of them just turning to notice their unconventional entrance.

"Uh... hello." She wobbled on the icy floor and nearly fell on her face before recovering herself with an embarrassed grin.

They didn't seem impressed.

"Ah don' think we'll be buckin' our way outta this'un so easy..."

"Wheeeeee!" Pinkie skimmed around in a circle while Fluttershy seemed to be trying to bury herself in solid ice to hide, but settled for the comfort of hiding behind AJ.

The room they were in echoed every sound in this awkward silence. A huge space that could have been carved out of the palace from much smaller rooms, the ceiling was braced by thick buttresses and columns, the vaulting, while undecorated, was elegant, and the floor was polished smooth and coated with ice, exactly why she'd slipped on the stairs along with everypony else that couldn't stop in time.

To her left a line of thick doors, five or six of them, stood open to the outside world, letting in flurries of icy wind. To her right a matching line of úlfur sleds waited for their masters, one or two at the far end were being polished and made ready again, probably only recently used. Behind them, they'd overshot a small landing area for guests, which led up a grand stairway, at the top of which the Princess was looking worried for their safety, surrounded by her guards. And ahead only smooth ice over stone ran to the far wall, interspersed with the collumns that held up the roof and walkways.

The walkways ran from the level of the door she'd fallen through, across the slippery floor high enough for the sleds to pass under, and then down to platforms next to each sled. That would have been the preferred way to go, except she'd missed the turn at the top of the steps that would have led onto the first one. All of the railings were wrought iron and brass, the icicles hanging from them only giving the place an even starker elegance and reserve to it.

"What do we do now?" Applejack whispered to her.

"Captain?" Celestia's voice sounded completely normal in the face of impending panic, "We require your services. Please requisition us a pair of sleds for transportation." She was poised, hoof raised as if ready to move on, keeping an eye on her student and the other elements. Her captain stood beside her, sizing up the task she'd given him as quickly as he could.

"Yes your Highness." He nodded a brief bow to her, and cleared his throat.

"Pegasus squad, clear us a ride! Unicorns, use what magic you can, make sure nopony slips up, and keep any wolf off our flanks. You two down there, pick up the fillies and make your way to the first available sled. Move your tails!"

A chorus of 'Yes Sir' followed and the guards finally got to take their frustrations out on even terms.

* * *

As battle raged around her, Twilight copied the spell she'd seen the unicorn guards use, coating her hooves and everypony else's with a light layer of magic to keep them from slipping about.

It wasn't for a few moments that she even realised that Kirianna was tapping on her shoulder again.

"Oh, sorry Kirianna, I wasn't paying attention, could you tell me that again?" She waited patiently, "That stupid colt, what's he trying to do? There's no point to all this if he gets himself captured!" A howl from a wolf was cut off as a unicorn sealed its lips with a small burst of magic.

"What did she say?" Dash leaned in close while Applejack and the unicorn guards watched all directions, pacing their walk across the ice to the progress of the guards above them. Pegasus guards were circling the walkway and Princess Celestia paced in the middle of the group like a swan on a river, completely at her ease as her ponies earned their catharsis.

"He's let the Regent drag him into the arena, they know we're gone now, so he's stalling for time."

"That moron, how is he supposed to escape?!"

"That's what I mean!"

"What are you doing? Keep up!" One of their guards shot over his shoulder.

"We have to go back!" Dash told him. A wolf thudded into the ice next to them, unconscious with its tongue lolling out, Fluttershy carefully poked the pink thing back into its owner's mouth, getting your tongue stuck to ice was painful. "Wind Chaser's been captured!"

"Wait, Dash! Kirianna says not to! Uh... Why shouldn't we?" She asked the little creature, but she couldn't read those large copper eyes, they were enigmatic in their default state of adorableness.

"What is it, Twi? We have to go back for him, he'd do the same for us!"

"She says to go, and not wait, he's only staying as long as we do, then he'll escape."

"That's crazy!" Dash shouted over the bedlam, "How is he supposed to do that?"

"I don't know either, but Kirianna is telling me to just go!"

"Then let's go!" The guard behind them, watching their backs, insisted.

Ahead of them a sled was standing open and waiting, two pegasus guards were already slipping into the traces, with another three on the way.

"That one girls, let's go for it!" Twilight made her mind up and led the charge.

Before she could get there, however, everything stopped. The úlfur completely failed to do anything about their charge and soon she realised something was wrong and stopped to see what it was.

A long, baying howl drifted through the air, haunting, but powerful. When it ended, every single wolf in the room turned and bounded for the door they'd entered by, swinging around the ponies and moving as a single entity back into the palace.

"Now tha' was downrigh' unsettlin'..." the orange farmer tipped her hat a little further forward, as if expecting more trouble.

"They're... leaving? At last! I've been just desperate to fix my hair!" Rarity immediately began primping in the nearest ice reflection.

"What are they..." Twilight began, but a series of taps on her shoulder interrupted, "No... no, that can't be right, Kirianna..."

"What?" Dash was there immediately, if nothing else, her instant concern for any news regarding the white pegasus was evidence enough she wasn't over her crush yet.

"Whatever it was Wind Chaser did, he's seriously managed to annoy the Regent. Kirianna says he's the one that howled a minute ago, and now every wolf that heard it is pouring into the arena."

"Then he's in trouble! We've gotta go help him!"

"She says it's... all part of the plan, he's got them surrounded from the... inside? Kirianna, that makes no sense at all!" She glared at the parasprite, who tapped some more, "Well it wasn't a very funny joke." She huffed.

More tapping followed. "Okay, okay, I get it. We'll get moving. But he'd better escape, because if we have to come back and save him, I'm going to lecture him so badly..."

* * *

Five minutes later and they were airborne. The sleds, it turned out, were imbued with their own flight spells; the úlfur weren't a species capable of unaided flight, and so the traces themselves were given the same spell that allowed them to run on air that their cloaks seemed to hold.

AJ, seeing this, had jumped at the chance to try it out, and she'd joined the ranks of those pulling the sled along with one or two of the more adventurous unicorns, leaving some of the pegasus guards free to watch out for pursuit.

"Wait everypony! Stop!" Twilight called out.

"What is it, Twilight?" Celestia looked concerned.

"Kirianna says we should watch the palace." She looked back over her shoulder at the receding shape of it.

Fryst Eldi wasn't looking quite so amazing as it had when they'd first seen it and she was shocked to think that only one pony, even if it was Wind Chaser, could have done all of that. Two towers from the outer walls had collapsed outwards, each of them falling into the snow-fields that surrounded the capital. Walls were cracked or crumbling in places, and there was even a collapsed gate on the near side, the thick buttressing and ice shattered like glass under a hammer.

The sleds pulled to a stop, pegasus and unicorn guards standing on the air as easily as if it were rock.

"What's happening, Twilight?" Rarity asked her from the next sled over.

"Kirianna says 'just watch'."

The pause was unbearable, just waiting and watching now, with no clue as to what they were supposed to expect. She started counting seconds, and, judging by the way Applejack and Dash were both tapping their forehoof more or less in time, they were doing the same.

"There!" Dash pointed, her count had reached about thirty, and the others saw what she was looking at immediately.

The great dome of the arena shuddered and tipped. It fell inwards at one side, and... they saw it crack, a massive fracture running through the very middle of it, and long moments later the massive report rolled around the mountainside.

"What in the world..." Twilight murmured to herself.

A streak of white shot high into the sky, "There he is!" Dash shouted in triumph,

"Yeah! Go Chaser!" Pinkie cheered,

"Right on!" AJ followed.

The dot that was Wind Chaser arced over and gained speed, hurtling back down again. A pause... a breath... And he smashed into the sinking dome like a stone into water.

All of the watchers stood silent and stared as the great dome of the arena rippled in the shockwave, shattering like a mirror out from the centre.

"Stars and sunlight..." Celestia breathed, and Twilight nodded vaguely in agreement.

Kirianna tapped on her shoulder. "He's coming." She told the others.

"A... About time!" Dash found her voice first, "Dumb colt, what was he thinking making us wait like that?!" She folded her hooves across her chest huffily.

They waited, watching the dust settle over Fryst Eldi. A shining white city in the fields of snow, now laid to waste. The roads were full of confusion, there were wolves and other creatures making their way in from all directions, in the air and on the ground.

From all the way out here it was like watching an anthill that had just been kicked.

At last, long minutes of waiting later, Dash spotted him. The guards cheered as Chaser hove into view over a nearby cloud, and Dash and Fluttershy flew out to meet him.

He looked... pink. And dirty, and a little ragged around the edges, but dark pink was all over him. Her friends guided him down into the sled with her and Princess Celestia, hovering back so that they didn't weigh the whole thing down.

Only when he collapsed did she realise that the pink was matted blood from cuts all over his shoulders, across his chest and neck, flanks... his back right hoof was hanging at an odd angle too, a ring of grisly red all that she could see above it. Seeing him burned red and black yesterday, and cut to ribbons today, how much did this insane pegasus do the rest of the time? Knowing how he'd bounced back from the burns, however, gave her a bit of comfort for the future of her big, crazy friend.

"Hey girls..." He winced as Twilight ran a spell over his coat to try and find what was hurt and where, "Your highness, it's an honour to finally meet you."

"Wind Chaser, I presume." Celestia greeted him, concern clear on her face as she, too, tried to guage just what this pony had been through. "I understand that we have you to thank for our fortuitous escape from these lands."

"Seemed like the thing to do at the time." He attempted a smile, but his quirk was on the wrong side, and it was mostly hidden behind his muzzle.

"You're chained, let's get those off you." She started to lean down,

"These? I was starting to like them." He looked down himself, as if he'd forgotten them. "But if you could, I'd be..." He winced again, "very grateful. They're a little tight."

He closed his eyes as a trickle of blood from a cut ran into one. Under the soft wave of her magic, the cuffs clinked free and tumbled over the side of the sled.

As the student and her teacher worked, Kirianna left her perch on Twilight's shoulder in a quiet buzz of wings, slewed sideways through the air and then bombed out onto her partner's back. Twilight gasped and Dash and Fluttershy drew in closer in worry. But the little creature was just happy to be home; she folded her wings back and nestled into the brown mane and made no move to leave again.

"My goodness..." Celestia's eyes widened, "That's... quite..." For once, she didn't seem to know what to say. Twilight remembered how Luna had reacted on seeing the two of them together, but explanations would likely have to wait.

"Chaser?" Twilight prodded him, carefully.

"m... fine..." He murmured, without opening his eyes, "sleep... now." And he was out like a light.

* * *

The three úlfur observed their home with fire burning in their hearts. They watched as wolves were pulled from the rubble of the arena.

"None were killed." Fuujin observed.

"None by him, at least, some... may not live." his brother countered.

"The Arena..."

"The Palace..." Neither wanted to finish as they waited for the third wolf to speak.

"We have... I have vastly underestimated these ponies from the start." Athelgeir paced back and forth, glaring at nothing in particular, "My Uncle and Ambassador Margeir also didn't believe they would act any differently to the other subject species. That was a mistake that cost us all dearly."

"Your orders, Lord?"

"No more tricks, it's time to settle this as a true conquering Mikil Úlfur. We will return to Equestria, I shall grant you robes of the Royal House for your work and together we shall brew the storm to end all storms. And when the world shakes from our very passage in the sky, then we shall offer them their choice with our fangs bare. They will submit, or they will fall."

The three howled to the sky together, but amongst the howls from packs all around the city, it went unnoticed by all.

* * *

Sorry my readers, sorry, I know this took me a long time, too long, in my opinion, but I have a reason. I'm holding back on these last chapters until the artwork is completed, I don't want to submit this to EQD when it's almost done, I want to get a few Update threads racked up ^^

That said, I also re-wrote this whole thing to prevent my ego taking hold. I hope it's up to par, considering it's not how I would have written it originally. But come on; a pony stampede through a kitchen with the mane 6 and Celestia charging down the table is a sight that will live with my imagination forever.

In any case, rest assured, I'm still writing, still planning even more things for this side-world of Equestria, just... waiting. The suspense is killing me!!

Onwards and upwards.

Comments

[shira]

"...úlfur guards thudding together like furry corks at the end of their chains." God I love that imagery.

Much better job this time around

[Thaylien]

375426

Thank you, glad you think so. It's great having a reader who's able to call me on my silliness. It proves that no matter how long you do something, there's always something new to learn, and someone who will turn your ideas over and make you rethink.