Fluttershy gasped awake, eyes opening and flinching back at the bright lights,
“She’s awake! Pinkie turn off the lights,” Lyra’s voice was right next to her ear and as soon as the light stopped burning through her eyelids, she opened them and was surprised that she was still able to see her friends.
“I thought you turned the lights off, I can still see the both of you,” Pinkie bumped into Lyra while going towards the bed, looking sad and withdrawn, while the unicorn looked uneasy, horn lighting up and levitating a mirror into her hooves.
“Fluttershy, take a deep breath, and think about all the nice puppies and kitties or whatever animals you like the best,” feeling nervous, Fluttershy didn’t look at the mirror, still staring at her friend.
“Lyra, what is going on?” she asked, but the unicorn shook her head, pointing at the mirror. Knowing that she wouldn’t like it, Fluttershy looked down at the mirror and shrieked, shattering the glass and turning her bed into a dangerous hazard.
“W-why-” before she could even finish asking, the memories of before trickled through her mind and her wings covered her head in terror at the nightmare.
A shudder went down her spine when she realized it wasn’t feather wings covering her head, but leathery ones.
---------------------
If there was ever a doubt as to where Fluttershy got her Stare, one only needed to make her mother angry.
“So you sabotaged my daughter, arranged her to be kidnapped by this quack,” her hoof pointed at the unicorn chained up in the middle of the room, but she was still staring at Onyx Arrow who had lost his smug air five seconds into their meeting.
“She was relying on anim-” “That’s her talent you slimy son of a-” Fancy Pants decided to step in,
“Miss Shy, I understand your anger, but we need to figure out what exact spell he used so we can reverse your daughter’s transformation. I don’t suppose you have any ideas Judge Oak?” looking uncomfortable in the Canterlot throne room, the Nocturne frowned in thought.
“Unfortunately, this is the first instance I’ve come across of a non-Nocturne transforming into one,” “As if your own race aren’t descended from transformed Pegasii,” standing right next to Judge Oak, Crescent Spiral bristled at Onyx’ words.
“Enough,” Celestia’s Royal Canterlot voice sent most of them across the room while others bent down to cover their ears.
Rubbing her head, Celestia glared at Onyx and the unicorn,
“I have had a very long few months since finding out there are traitors in the Royal Guard, and finding out that a program I helped plan with one of my best former Captains being sabotaged by pettiness and jealousy, resulting in the few promising candidates being chased out; I am not happy. Now we have a missing filly, her friend traumatized and dealing with new changes because of your incompetence (your license is hereby revoked by the way. Both of you.) Now, I am going to ask a very important question, and you better know the answer,” she stalked towards them, leaning down so that her eyes were meeting his,
“Where is Amethyst Storm?”
--------------------
Fluttershy stared at her reflection in the mirror that Lyra prepared, her own slitted blue eyes staring back at her, her now fanged mouth open in shock.
“Well, at least your eyes aren’t red anymore?” Lyra offered, wincing at Fluttershy’s expression.
“I have bat wings Lyra,” “They’re pretty wings?” “I have fangs,” “Now you can chew meat much easier!” “My tongue is forked,” “You can grab food without leaving your seat!” “My ears Lyra,” “Hey now you can hear everything much better!” Fluttershy looked at Pinkie who was still slumped, her ears down and looking forlorn.
Then Fluttershy realized something, something she did not want to realize.
“Pinkie?” the filly flinched staring up at her, “Where’s North Wind?” tears fell down her pink cheeks.
“F-fluttershy,” she cried, scaring the pegasus, “I’m sorry, I didn’t, I didn’t mean to, she ran off befo-,” she wailed, collapsing to the floor and crying into her hooves.
Fluttershy’s heart sunk down to her stomach.
----------------------------------
*Creak* *Crash* *Snap* *Crash* pounded in her ears as the tree fell around her, but she kept going, not wanting to stop.
Forget what Po said, there’s no point in gaining control of this curse if it is just going to scare her friends.
She needed to get rid of it, she needed to let it go.
Now if only her chasers would leave her alone.
“Get back here pony!” fire shot passed her, setting a tree on fire and with a wave of her wings she snuffed it out.
Her curse might be destroying the forest, but she’d rather not have it go down in a blaze of fire. With a glance behind her, she saw the three teenage dragons chasing her, one a darker shade of green than Po’s with blue scales, his buddies were orange and purple respectively with scars on their bodies and rips in their wings.
And they’ve been chasing her for two hours.
“Just leave me alone!” she shouted back at them, shooting herself forward and through a narrow space between trees that were entwined with one another.
“This is our territory!” another one growled flying passed and trying to clip her but she dodged and punched him right in the snout sending him reeling back and waving her hoof, mouthing ow as she consulted the mental map in her head.
If she was right, those trees were the second marker leading to the spot, and from what she read in the books at Hollow Shades, there were five in total.
A map would be easier, but considering she left before she could ask the stallion, using her knowledge was the only option.
The third marker was supposed to be some sort of stone statue in the shape of a dragon, which is how she suspected these jerks ended up claiming the area as theirs.
Never mind its the fact that its a Forbidden Jungle filled with ruins and belonged to no one. In the corner of her eye she spotted stone in a clearing and flew over, barely stopping as she made sure it was the statue that she was looking for.
Mentally checking it off her list, and decidedly not focusing on how much it looked like Master Po, she flew right over into a valley filled with moss-covered skeletons of creatures she could not identify, except for the fact none of them were ponies.
Time to search for the fourth marker, a swipe at her mane sent cut hairs to the bottom floor and gritting her teeth, she folded her wings and dove, the translucent wings shielding her as she made her escape.
Now if only these idiots will leave her alone.
---------------------------
Fluttershy stared at the covers, Pinkie’s story swirling around her brain while the Earth filly avoided looking at her, Lyra off to the side biting her lip.
“It wasn’t your fault Pinkie,” she whispered, shaking her head when the party filly wanted to protest, “I’m the one that was silly enough to fall into their trap, North warned me about trusting the wrong ponies and I let my fears overrule me instead of going to the pony that could’ve spoken up to Onyx Arrow.” she saw them exchange glances and paled, “What is it?”
“If you mean Amethyst Storm,” Lyra began, uneasily, “She’s missing,” “What?!” Fluttershy exclaimed, “For how long?” “Since you guys arrived in Hollow Shades, all of the program ponies were rounded up and Cross Shield stated that Amethyst has been out of contact for a while,” Fluttershy’s heart stopped.
“You don’t think it was,” their downcast faces told her enough.
Oh what- voices outside the door caught her attention and she flicked an ear towards it, the voices clearing up.
“What if the Princess arrives before we can take them away?” “Don’t worry about it, she’s too busy dealing with the political storm of Nocturnes being in Canterlot and that program going sideways, they will occupy her with that situation till nightfall. We just need to grab these fillies before she does,” the blood drained from her face as the other chuckled, relieved, “Hey, do you think Wind Scar will let us have a go at them? That yellow one is especially cute, and I’ve always had a thing for bat wings,” “Sick bastard,” the other teased, not sounding disgusted at all.
“We’ll grab them in four hours when the shift changes,” Fluttershy turned green, shaking her head when Lyra lifted a bucket and swallowed, forcing the bile down.
She quietly relayed what she heard and soon they shared her feelings of revulsion.
“We need to get out of here and find North,” Lyra stated, firmly, Pinkie gulped,
“But how? We don’t know where she is?” the unicorn summoned her magic and placed a dresser in front of the door, also putting a bar through the handle, twisting it around without making a sound.
“It will require a locator spell, I’ll be right back, do not give them a reason to want to come in, Pinkie, we’ll need supplies,” the pink filly nodded and Fluttershy blanched, realizing they were both leaving.
“W-wait,” Lyra gave her a reassuring glance,
“It’ll be fine Fluttershy, just rest up till we can leave, okay?” reluctantly, Fluttershy settled onto the cot, forcing herself to keep an ear on those stallions, no matter how much their words disgusted her.
She could do this, she needed to do this.
Even if all she wanted to do was bleach her brain of that stallion’s voice or fill her ears with cotton to drown them out.
‘Don’t worry North, we’ll find you’ Fluttershy stared out the window, hoping beyond hope that they manage to do so before the filly did something stupid.
And maybe, just maybe, they’ll find Miss Amethyst as well.
----------------------------
Swooping through an archway with cloud formations etched into the stone, she marked off the fourth marker with relief.
Now all that was left was the fifth marker.
And she managed to lose the dragons as well!
With aching wings, wind wings or no, it was still exhausting she decided to finish the rest of hr journey on hoof. Finding a rock-laden path, she landed and began running, keeping her already strained senses open for a possible ambush. The path widened and she paid mind to the broken stones and any obstacles that would make her trip or pierce into her hoof.
A pyramid appeared in her sights and she almost sobbed with relief.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t granted a reprieve when upon bursting out into the clearing, her eyes met the three and she was veering to the right, hearing their shouts and roars as she sped into a doorway attached to a hall leading to the pyramid.
With great reluctance, the surrounding wind stirred, and she was in the air, holding the wings tight against her and avoiding cutting into the walls.
The only good thing to come out of that five-hour chase was the control over her wings and preventing the same damage as in the forest.
She just needed to enter the pyramid and find that door said to lead into the secret passage to the temple.
A horrible stench met her nose and nearly gagging she barely had time to react when a familiar small dragon appeared in front of her.
Wide purple eyes met hers before she was bumping into him, the dragon yelping and landing on her back as she continued flying.
“Hey! Put me down!” “If you want to get down you’ll have to jump because I’m not stopping!” she called back, wishing she could shut off her sense of smell.
There was a grumble from the weight on her back, before he spotted the dragons chasing her and froze.
“No no no, hurry up, I’m not dealing with them,” she wished she could glare at him but the sight up ahead needed her entire focus as she dodged fallen pillars and avoided sharp spikes emerging from the walls.
A wall appeared in front of her, but she increased the size of her wings, making the dragon flatten against her back to avoid being touched by them as she reared one back and threw it into a sideways arc, her other wing striking from the other side.
The wall crumbled instantly, the curse stopping them from falling down on them as she came to some sort of inner chamber. Seeing steps leading below, she aimed in that direction, hearing the curses of her pursuers and the pained groans of her passenger.
“What’s wrong with you?” “Molting, itches,” was the strained reply, ah, she had read about the dragon’s growing their wings later in life, but she didn’t expect it to be like this.
Though that did explain Spike’s lack of wings and North lamented at the fact she didn’t watch all the seasons before ending up here.
More knowledge about this world would’ve been nice.
“Why are you glowing? Do all ponies glow?” his incredulous tone was not welcome, at all.
“Yes, and we bleed pink cotton candy because we’re weak and fragile,” she snarked, and there was a huff.
“You are weak, you need to use dragon wings to fly instead of the- oh no,” too late did she realize why he was saying it before there was a hiccup and a roar of fire sending her veering away into a different room, crashing into the walls with one wing that made a popping sound that she did not like.
Shaking her head, she glared at the smelly dragon,
“What possessed you to do a stupid thing like that?” he returned the glare.
“I didn’t do it on purpose! Why didn’t you use your Blessing to avoid it?” the bitter tone at ‘Blessing’ made her groan.
“Well it-” a cracking noise made her blood run cold and fearing what she would see, she looked down.
“Do not move,” she hissed, trying to summon her wings again but the pain in her wing made it difficult to focus.
“Don’t tell me what to do pony,” he snapped, getting to his feet, causing another cracking sound.
“Unless your wings appear in the next five seconds, do what I say,” she snapped, “Or do you want to end up the first dragon to die from falling?” she wasn’t sure if that was true actually, but it got his red scales turning grey as he looked at the floor, seeing the cracks spreading under them and realizing their situation.
“Uh, I don’t suppose you can just shoot us out with your wind?” “If you want to end up in pieces,” was her dry response, he straightened.
“You can’t do that, befor-” “Before I was barely trained, but I spent two months with Master Po,” he conceded the point,
“So how do you propose we get out?” opening her mouth, North barely said a word before they were falling, three heads popping up above them and sneering at them,
“Serves you right trespasser,” “Hey Garble, hope your wings grow in!” another called, laughing.
The third was holding his nose, smirking, not saying anything at all.
But none of them flew down to catch them, and North saw the hurt expression on Garble’s face before he wiped it away.
She touched the wall of the tunnel, trying to adhere to it with her hoof but to her horror it slide right off.
“Can you grab the walls with your claws?” she called to the dragon who tried digging his claws into the wall, only for both of them to cringe at the screeching as the walls repelled his attempt.
Magic and Dragon proof walls?
“Oh Celestia dammit,” she cursed as the two fell into the tunnels below.
----------------------------
“Alright, time for a shift change,” the Royal Guard said cheerfully checking his watch, and feeling himself salivate at the thought of that yellow filly in the other room.
Then the doors opened and all the blood drained from his face at the ponies that entered.
They were not Royal Guards.
Catching himself, he saluted, his partner along with him, and tried not to sweat underneath the Princesse’s gaze.
“Open the doors,” she ordered, he bowed and tried to open the doors, frowning when they wouldn’t budge.
Glancing at the alicorn, he swallowed, putting even more effort and strength into trying to push it open. The door creaked inward but did not open, and there was a sigh before a golden glow enveloped the door, the sound of squeaking appearing before the door was lifted off the hinges, revealing a bar on its handle and a dresser in front of the door next to the hospital bed.
The empty hospital bed.
With disbelief, he ran into the room, only to trip over some sort of wire and a tin filled with a foul-smelling substance smashed into his face, sending him rearing back.
The heat in the room rose and as he wiped the glop from his face, staring at Celestia in fear as the alicorn picked up a note pinned to the window.
“Take your bat filly fantasies and shove them up your butt!” her tone promised death and it only just occurred to the stallion that the pegasus with bat wings might have enhanced hearing as well.
Oh buck, he wasn’t getting out of this, was he?
“Would one of you like to tell me what this note means? Or would you like to explain it to her?” she pointed at a yellow Pegasus mare with a light red mane, eyes narrowed and a frown on her face.
“Yes, why don’t you explain what you wanted with my daughter,” his limbs locked against his will and he watched the approaching mare with fear.
He should’ve run when the others were caught, screw Wind Scar.
But where did those fillies even go?
----------------------------------
“This is worse than North’s flying!” Pinkie clung to the cart feeling her poofy hair flying behind her as the cart rolled down the streets of Canterlot.
“We need to gain momentum,” Lyra defended herself, “This a very difficult vehicle to use,” her horn flared, getting ready to activate the sails on the flying airboat her mom kept for viewing reasons.
She’ll have to thank Reese for getting it, no questions asked, and hopefully Uncle Fancy can prevent the griffin from getting in trouble for doing so.
“Fluttershy, to the right!” the filly spun the wheel, turning the ship away before it crashed into a snack stand selling cupcakes with gold leaf on them.
Ew.
Luckily for them, there were few living souls in the streets, most of the ponies either at a late night Wonderbolts show or attending the last viewing of a famous opera.
Wait, dang it she hasn’t watched it yet, oh well, next time, maybe.
“We’re getting to the train station!” Pinkie called, pulling goggles over her head.
“Right!” come on Reese, she thought, staring at the empty road, heart pounding, please. Then she spotted a ramp being pushed in their path with a familiar disguised pegasus, surprisingly there was a Nocturne right next to her who waved at them as Lyra released the sails and Pinkie set off the rockets, propelling the boat off the ramp into the air.
Pinkie Pie set off another blast to quicken the ascent and Lyra groaned as she used her magic to keep it moving.
It was harder than she thought.
Chirps and hoots greeted her ears and she gaped at the birds appearing around their boat, grabbing ropes that were at the sides and flying ahead. There were crows and ravens, owls and eagles, and all sorts of other birds as well.
“What,” her and Pinkie glanced at Fluttershy who was rubbing the back of a buzzard who nuzzled cheek with one bald head before joining the others in pulling the boat.
“We do need to get there as fast as possible, right? Where are we going?” Lyra swallowed.
“Right,” hopefully that recording of the spell was enough, and she brought out a clump of blue hair, summoning an ocarina and surrounding it in a diamond barrier.
“Find North Wind,” the glowing diamond lifted into the air and shot ahead, soaring through the air.
The birds did not need to be told twice, and with Fluttershy gently guiding them, they were soon following after the tracking spell at a good speed.
She just hoped that it was enough.
It had to be.
-------------------------------------------------------------
As the walls started getting narrower and narrower, North knew she would have to suggest something that neither of them would like.
“We need to hold each other if we’re want to avoid getting squished,” he glared at her,
“I’m not touching you,” rolling her eyes, she turned and kicked off the wall, grabbing him around the neck and breathing through her mouth as he tried to push her off.
“These walls are dragon-proof, do you want to be sliced to shreds,” to prove her point one of his flailing arms caught against a sharp point and a slice appeared across his arm, dark red blood coming out.
He froze and clung to her, just as the both of them fell through a hole, narrowly avoiding being speared before they were in a bigger space.
Then they hit water.
Cold, cold water.
Rising to the surface, North gasped for air, swimming to the shore and shaking water off,
“That was fun-” she trailed off, looking at the water and around, but not spotting the red dragon.
Oh no, don’t tell her. She dove back into the water, pushing herself forward and ignoring the pain in her dislocated wing as she looked for a red sp- there. She swam down further, grabbing a hold of his tail with her teeth and swimming back.
She dragged him onto the cavern floor, spitting out his tail and wiping her tongue with a grimace, before checking his pulse.
He coughed water into her face and she spluttered, stepping back and wiping her face as he continued hacking out water.
“You dragons swim in lava,” she said dryly, he avoided her gaze, “You live near the ocean,” “Well not all of us enjoy going into water you know,” “Yes I can smell that,” he huffed, getting to his feet and scratching himself as weird scales appeared on him. Leaving him to it, she looked around the cavern, frowning as she stepped further and saw images on the cave.
It depicted winged creatures, not just ponies, flying around and wielding the Blessing of the Wind, some creating tornadoes with a beat of their wings, while others lifted objects up with the wind like they were unicorns. Other images depicted creatures sitting, surrounded by wind, ears straight up as waves of sounds entered their ears from a distance away where other creatures had a claw or hoof raised to their mouth.
All of these images showed what those with a Blessing could do, compared to a pegasus who while they had the ability to manipulate the weather, it was only on a smaller scale with the assistance of other ponies.
A pain in her side had her jumping away from Garble who huffed and walked away, and she stared at him in confusion before glancing at her wing.
Did he just pop it back in?
“Let’s just get out of here,” she caught up with him, raising a brow.
“Do you know where your going?” “No, do you?” she pursed her lips, thinking,
“There should be an exit if we do come upon a door with a wind symbol, I know they had two ways to get into the Temple,” he stopped, making her look at him.
“Your looking for the Wind Temple?” Garble breathed out, she rolled her shoulders, going forward.
“Yes,” “Why, to get more training, Master Po could train you further, he already likes you,” and there was that bitter tone again.
“No, I’m there to give that Blessing back,” a beat, and then a rock hit the back of her head, “Ow! What was th-” he was glowering at her, looking indignant.
“Do you know how long it has been since a Dragon received a Blessing?” he demanded, “Do you know how many would kill to have what is freely given to you ponies?” “My Blessing, no, my Curse is too dangerous for me to use, and if I use it too long, then I’ll end up going power hungry and hurting those close to me. I need to give it up,” she pleaded with him to understand, but just like Po, he was disgusted.
“Fine, whatever, this is why ponies are weak,” stomping ahead of her without a backwards glance, she watched him go with dismay.
Sure she didn’t like him, but giving up the Blessing was her choice, no one else’s.
Didn’t mean the reactions hurt any less.
She found him waiting in front of a large door, where the symbol of the wind greeted them with pipes peeking out of the structure.
Staring up at the design, she sighed and tried to send wind up the pipes.
Keyword tried.
The wind shot from her being towards the door and did go into the pipes, but the groan and shaking that followed did not reassure her, nor did the sight of cracks appearing in the door before it crumbled, much like that wall from before.
She glanced at a shocked Garble, his mouth open and eyes wide at the sight.
“Still think I should keep it?” he shook his head and glared, muttering under his breath about an awesome power not being respected.
Stone steps greeted them and they climbed up, surrounded on all sides by even more paintings of the lives of the Temple residents. Gems glowed, lighting their path, even if North’s own glow was giving enough light.
“Why was this place even abandoned?” Garble said, taking a gem out of the wall and biting into it, smiling as he enjoyed the taste.
It made North realize how long it’d been since her own last meal and her stomach started growling.
“If you see any plants or anything, please point them out to me,” there was no reply and she sighed, “This place was abandoned for a number of reasons, they started becoming afraid of their own Blessings, future generations of non-ponies faced a decreasing number of those born with the Blessing.” they reached the top an hour later, North’s legs about to fall off and Garble looking exhausted as well.
It didn’t help that his itching was getting even worse.
They came into an open area with a ceiling bringing sunlight in (despite the fact she was pretty sure they were too far underground for sunlight to reach them.) Light shining onto the center where a circular platform stood, an arch over it and the moment she stepped into the room, breath left her lungs and she collapsed.
“Hey!” claws gripped her shoulder, shaking her, “Don’t faint now pony,” North wanted to tell him to stop, but the suffocating feeling was kind of making it difficult.
Oh Celestia it was just as bad if not worse than being in Cloudsdale!
Pushing the feeling back, she struggled to her hooves and walked towards the platform, shaking her head when he made to follow her.
Maybe sensing this kind of atmosphere will go away once she gives it up?
Going up the last few steps required even more of her energy, but she ignored her protesting body as she walked through the arch onto the platform.
Or tried to, at least.
A shimmer surrounded her, keeping her in place as a voice appeared in her head.
“Are you here to give up your blessing?” the tone itself sounded resigned, as if it did not expect anything else, and she tried not to feel guilty as she gave her reply.
“Yes,” “Are you aware that you must sacrifice a part of yourself to enter the platform, as payment for the renouncement of your Blessing,” well no, no one had told her that.
“What kind of part?” “Anything, memories, body parts, except your mane, something you need,” well there goes that plan.
Knowing she was on a time, she tried to think of what she could give up that would not affect her.
The smell of Garble’s horrible molting reached her and she wished that she could block it ou- wait.
“Does my sense of smell count?” “It does, is that your decision?” “It is,” the shimmer went into her nose and she felt the urge to sneeze but held it back as it came back out and she was let onto the platform.
The circles within started spinning as she approached the middle, glowing and sending breezes into the air around her.
Right, this was it.
“Huh, sacrificing a sense never occurred to me,” the voice had her whipping her head and she looked into green eyes before a shimmer much darker than the one that trapped her wrapped around the owner’s neck, and she opened her mouth in horror as a snap echoed through the cavern, a blue stallion stepping over the fallen body of the one Ranger that had been on their side.
Who was now dead.
“Amethyst,” she whispered, cold blue eyes glanced back at the mare in disinterest.
“Foolish mare, thought she could take me down herself, huh, you have a lizard with you,” he commented, surprise coloring his tone as he stepped onto the platform, “If I’d known that, I would have saved her for something else,” North wanted to back away from him but to her horror her hooves were not moving.
“Why are you here?” he stopped right in front of her and raised one of his wings, a dark blue wind shooting out and cutting her cheek, a smile forming on his muzzle as she stared at him.
“Why, to accept your Blessing of course, my dear North Wind,” a dome appeared from the lit up ceiling, descending towards them as he continued smiling at her, the wind around them swirling even more.
No, North shook her head, trying to get away from him, No.
NO!!!