Gusty sat down, panting heavily.
“Ok. I think we can all agree that now everything makes sense.” Fizzy commented.
“Yeah.” Galaxy agreed with her older sister. “Even me,” she emphasized her point by laying her hoof on her chest. “who has just recently heard of everything, understands what happened.”
“But there´s something that doesn´t make sense, though.” Lancer said. “Why did she choose a little filly-”
“Well, not a filly anymore.” Fizzy corrected him. “Of all of us here, she´s the one who has foals.”
Buttons noticed Majesty´s expression in her face, which indicated that Fizzy´s words somewhat affected her. She harshly nudged her friend.
“What was that?” Fizzy asked Buttons.
Buttons pointed at Majesty. Fizzy bit her lips.
“Oh… No offense Majesty. I mean! My queen.”
“Non taken.” she begrudgingly reassured her.
“Well, mare now.” Lancer rectified. “But filly if Lucena decided that she would be the Wind Warrior when she met her.”
“Your point is…” Glory rotated her hoof, imploring Lancer to keep talking.
“My point is why she would choose somepony who is unexperienced in combat and surely hasn´t lifted a weapon in her entire life.”
“Does a broom count?” Clover raised his hoof. “Because when we met, she almost killed me with one.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Buttons sarcastically said as she looked at Gusty. The latter looked away.
“No, Clover. A broom does not count.” Lancer replied. “Although it´s not a bad use for a broom…” he thought aloud. He shook his head. “Still, she has never used a sword, does not know any spells for combat and need I to remind that she practically exposed herself? If I wanted an over-powered tyrant out of the throne, I would have chosen somepony with experience and good at combat!”
“Well… If she was chosen, it must have been for a reason.” Glory supposed. “When I asked Majesty why she had chosen me as the spies´ leader she said because I was loyal and caring.”
“Yeah, but one thing is leading spies, and another is defeating Grogar. And just because she´s on that picture doesn´t mean that she´s going to defeat Grogar. It could mean that she could also fail.” Lancer replicated.
“If that was the case, I don´t think that Grogar would have destroyed it.” Buttons disagreed. “In fact, I think he´d have it hanging on his wall.”
“That´s… actually a pretty good point. I´ll give you that.”
“We may not fully know what the prophecy says but if she´s there it´s because she plays an important part in Grogar´s life.” said Majesty. “And I want to believe that part is on our benefit. But most importantly,” she walked to Gusty. “do you believe it?”
Gusty got up from the floor.
“I can´t deny it now. But I still don´t accept it.”
“You still don´t? Gusty, you yourself put the pieces together again and saw-”
Gusty held her hoof high.
“With all my respect my queen, I´d like to finish. Please.”
Though, she´d still speak for hours about the facts that proved that Gusty was chosen, Majesty respected Gusty´s request.
“Alright. Go on.”
“Thank you.” Gusty bowed slightly. “This… Is a lot to take in and a huge responsibility. On one day I am a jobless mother that can barely take care of her foals and less herself and on the other day I am supposed to be the heroine of a prophecy? And not just any prophecy. A prophecy about Grogar getting defeated by me! Much like Lancer says, I haven´t stepped a hoof on a battlefield.”
“See? Even she agrees with me!” Lancer cockily said.
“Shut up Lancer.” Clover told him.
“I´m still made of flesh and bone.” Gusty continued. “I am not invincible nor immortal. I could die at any moment! I don´t care if a prophecy says that I won´t, a prophecy is still a prediction. It´s not a final saying about the future.”
“We´ll do anything to prevent that. I won´t let that happen.” Majesty said. “Besides, we´ll train you very well. A trained soldier always has more chances to survive.”
“But it´s not a guarantee.”
“We know it isn´t!” Majesty´s involuntarily raised her voice, as she was losing her patience. “But it´s what gives us hope for a better future. You didn´t know if you would survive inside Grogar´s castle, yet you still went in. And why? Because you had hope that you could feed your daughters, no matter how dangerous it was.”
“But I ended up failing!”
“Yes, but you´re still alive! You have a chance to make things right, and you don´t want to because you´re scared! I understand that but this is not a matter of whether you want to or not. This is something that affects us all. Start thinking about us and not yourself.”
Gusty gasped softly. Despite having herself at a low standard, there was something that Gusty was really sure of: She was not a selfish pony. That was something that she wouldn´t let anypony say to her. And Majesty had just crossed that line. Slowly, fear abandoned her mind and anger took hold.
“You still don´t understand, do you? It´s not about me. It´s about you. If you are around me, something bad will happen to you. My family died from the plague because they had to take care of me. Because of me, my daughters are in danger. Because of me, my friends almost died.” “Because of me, I almost threw away all of your sacrifice and hard work.”
As Gusty spoke, her eyes filled with tears and her voice grew more and more desperate. Buttons and Fizzy froze when they felt something moving their manes.
“Uh… Gusty…” Buttons tried to warn her, but Gusty didn´t hear her.
“Whenever I made wind, I destroyed crops and caused trouble to other unicorns. Now you praise me for my wind magic but the minute you see it, you´ll run away and start calling me a mess. Everypony does!”
As always, the breezes turned into a stronger wind that made everypony float. Galaxy held onto her sister and Buttons.
“What´s going on?” Galaxy asked scared.
Glory took Lancer´s hoof so he wouldn´t fly away. Then, she ignited her horn to hold Majesty.
“Gusty. Calm down!” Majesty begged Gusty with fear.
“And what´s worse, those who stay around end up the worst.” she sobbed. “It´s because of my wind that my husband is dead!”
Just after she said that the wind stopped. Everypony fell to the floor. Gusty broke into tears as she sat down. Afterwards, she laid her head on her hooves, which were on the floor. Once she was on fours, Fizzy walked to Gusty.
“Is that why you´re so afraid of your wind? Because your husband died?” she asked as she sat down next to her.
Gusty dried her tears before answering.
“Just like me, Grogar tried to deny the prophecy. But deep down, he feared it. Due to their relations with the weather, Grogar thought that the Wind Warrior was a pegasus. So,” her voice broke. “he ordered to kill every pegasus.”
Everypony widened their eyes surprised.
“Wait. Your husband was a pegasus?” Fizzy asked shocked.
Gusty sniffed. She nodded.
“Not a typical choice of a partner, considering that we don´t really get along but I respect it.” her ears went down. “And was he-”
“Yes.” Gusty replied in a whisper.
Fizzy couldn´t find what words to say to her aching friend, so she stayed silent for a while.
“Wow, that´s… Traumatic. But it´s not your fault that happened.”
“Yes, it is! If I hadn´t talked to Lucena, that wouldn´t have happened.”
“You were a filly! How would you have known?”
“I-I don’t´ know. But he shouldn´t have died.”
“Of course, he shouldn´t have mija.” Fizzy said as she stroked her mane.
Without expecting it, Gusty hugged Fizzy. Though surprised, Fizzy returned the hug.
“Oh, my poor chérie.” she said as she and Galaxy walked to join the hug.
“There, there.” Galaxy patted Gusty.
Meanwhile, Majesty, Lancer, Glory and Clover observed the scene. The queen and soldier looked at each other, not so sure what to do or what to say next. Only Glory was able to jump into action. She walked to the four unicorns and sat in front of them. She looked down and took a breath in.
“I am so sorry about what happened to your husband, even if he was a pegasus. I never had a husband but I did have a family. Much like your husband, they were also murdered.”
The four unicorns looked at Glory as she spoke. Gusty looked down.
“I´m sorry.”
“It´s ok. I still miss them, but it was a long time ago. When did your husband die?”
“Three years ago, or so. But it still feels like it was yesterday.”
“And your family?”
“I think I was eight.”
“In my case, I was fourteen.”
“What happened to them?”
“They were thieves. They didn´t steal anything grandiose. Just food or a few coins to survive. And to feed me. One day some soldiers caught them. And you know what happens to thieves.”
“Yeah.”
“I also felt like you. Thinking it was my fault and that I was worthless. However, after Queen Majesty welcomed me to her crew, I understood that what happened to my parents was due to the conditions Grogar forces us to live in, not me. It´s the same for you. Grogar put himself in that mess and he will blame anypony except himself, no matter who he hurts in the way. Just like your husband.”
“But… I could have done something.”
“You can now.” Glory stood up. “By preventing the same thing happening again. By standing up for other unicorns. By fighting the enemy. Your husband´s death will not be in vain, Gusty. By joining Majesty, I honoured my family´s name. By fighting Grogar, you will honour your husband.”
Glory´s words widened Gusty´s eyes. She looked at everypony around her, then at the prophecy and lastly at her phoenix feather necklace, thinking about Nigh Eye, Celestia and Luna. All of them trusted her even if she didn´t trust herself. While looking at the necklace, she could almost hear Night Eye that he believed in her. She saw that Glory offering her hoof to her. In an instant, the insecurity in her face disappeared and was replaced by a frown full of determination. She gave her hoof to Glory as she nodded.
“I´m still not sure if I will defeat Grogar. But I am willing to fight.” Gusty said as Glory helped her to stand up.
Buttons, Fizzy, Galaxy and Clover cheered at her. Glory gave her a smile of pride. Majesty sighed in relief before smiling. Normally, Lancer would have rolled his eyes but after seeing Gusty´s wind, he simply blinked, not so sure on how to react.
Gusty walked to Majesty and bowed at her.
“I think I am ready to show you my wind magic.”
“Actually, you did.” Buttons told her.
“What?”
“Yeah! While you were explaining us why you didn´t believe yourself to be the Wind Warrior. You were pretty emotional.” Galaxy added.
“Oh dear… Was it too strong?”
“You did a mini hurricane.” Glory replied.
“Oh… Sorry.”
“Don´t worry. None of us got hurt. It was very quick, it finished when you stopped talking.”
“It did?”
“Yeah.”
“That´s… Odd. Normally, it stops once I come back to reality. But this time I didn´t. Why could that be?”
“Mija.” Fizzy put her foreleg around her. “You held to yourself the grief of your husband´s death, the fear of using wind magic, the trauma of being in Grogar´s castle, the stress of hiding your intentions from us, and the shock of being the Wind Warrior, all at once. If I were you, I think I would have caused a tornado that would have destroyed everything.”
“I´ve seen the wind you can get to make, and I think it´s impressive.” Majesty told Gusty. “But it´s also connected to your emotions, which is something you have trouble controlling it. You´ll have to work on that.”
“Magaga taught me some methods to calm myself down and control my magic.”
“But I don´t think that will be enough.” said Buttons. “You don´t have to hold your emotions or magic any longer. If there´s anything bothering you, you´ll have to talk to us. Do you promise us that?”
“Hm. It´s going to be difficult but seeing that you are so willing to listen, I think it´s worth trying.” Gusty smiled at Buttons.
“Uh… Mama! Are you finished?” Celestia asked from the outside.
“Yeah!” Gusty replied. “I´m coming. I have so many things to tell you.”
“No need to! We heard everything.” Luna replied.
Gusty playfully rolled her eyes as she shook her head.
“So, you accepted?” Celestia asked in bed at night.
Gusty nodded her head.
“That´s great! I´m glad you´re starting to have more confidence in yourself.”
Gusty chuckled.
“I don´t feel very confident. But I do want to try.”
“What made you change your mind?” Luna asked curious.
Gusty smiled at her phoenix feather necklace.
“The thought of being able to repay to somepony you owe so much was stronger than fear. Besides, even though my wind magic went a little out of control in there, they didn´t bash me. And they encouraged me not to hold it anymore. It felt… Nice. I think it´s worth sticking around ponies like that.”
“See? I told you your magic was beautiful mama.”
Gusty smiled at Luna.
“When do you begin your training?”
“Tomorrow I think.”
“Oh, can´t wait!” Celestia asked excited. “Surely you´ll kick all their butts, mama.”
Gusty laughed.
“Alright, time to sleep. Both you and I are going to need lots of energy.”
“Fair enough.” Celestia yawned. “I´m starting to get a little sleepy. Good night, Lulu.”
“Good night, Tia.” Luna replied back. “Good night mama.”
“Good night sweeties.” Gusty said to the both of them.
The two fillies fell asleep before their mother. Gusty´s smile turned into an expression of worry. The days she could say good night to her daughters could start to be countered. She knew either her or them could get seriously hurt. However, now it was not the time to get worried. As she said herself, the next day was going to be rough. Before going to sleep, she looked through the window. It was very small, but she could see Grogar´s castle. She wondered briefly if the ram was going through the same process of acceptance as she did.
“You brought this on yourself, Grogar.” she muttered before blowing the candle out. “You brought this on yourself.”
Just as Gusty had guessed, she was not the only one worried about what was coming. Thoughts were also keeping Grogar awake at night too. He constantly changing his position in bed. Until he fed up and got up to work on his study.
As he searched for paper in which to write, he found the one in which the prophecy was written. He tore it in pieces as he growled.
“A pegasus. Bah! All along, it was a darn unicorn.” he thought aloud.
Then, he noticed one of Gusty´s posters. He hatefully stared at it.
“You and that innocent attitude of yours. I should have known you were that back-stabbing sorceress´ pawn!” he wrinkled the poster. “Nevertheless, I somehow feel bad for you. Forcefully dragged into a battle that isn´t yours and shouldn´t exist. But don´t worry, I can take you out of it.” he said as he approached the paper to the candle. Slowly it began to burn. “I can free you of that self-righteous Majesty and give you the peace you desire so much.”
He threw the burning poster to the ground.
“But if you already have been brainwashed by that `queen´,” Grogar chuckled. “you have no idea what I have in store for you Wind Warrior. You want to fight me? So be it. But I swear that I´ll make you suffer unimaginable pain. I´ll destroy your soul until it leaves your body.”
Then, he looked at the starry sky as he walked to the window.
“Fine master. Bring it in. I´ll show that you´re wrong.” then, he lowered his sight to the capital´s out borders. “I pledge my word, Gusty. No matter how fast you run, no matter where you hide, I will catch you.”