//------------------------------//
// 014 Life's Void 
// Story: The Life Returns 
// by Dress72 
//------------------------------//

014
Luna rushed to Canterlot, White Wind within her magical grip, and her mind going frantic. She knew that he was dead, but that somehow, his mind was completely alive, despite it almost fading completely. Had she been just a few seconds longer from casting her spells, he would have been gone completely, no hope of revival.
‘It was strange, there was something within his mind that forced me out,’ she thought, ‘I think that it is also what strangled out his life, but I didn’t sense anything. I wonder if it kept his mind alive enough for me to do this paralysis spell. It defiantly could have just smothered him completely before I even reached him.’ She was thinking as fast as she was flying, and she was almost at Canterlot already, despite leaving only 20 minutes ago. ‘I just hope that Jake doesn’t go on a rampage.’
Upon arriving at Canterlot, she found Shining Armor, who still had the different coat color, confront her. He looked at White Wind, then back at her, “Princess Luna, what is going on?”
“Mathew is dead. Well, his body is at least. I put him in a frozen state before his mind went, so his body won’t age, and his mind will stay. For now at least,” Luna explained, completely forgetting to use Mathew’s pony name, White Wind.
“Wait, Mathew. So you are the pony that he was talking about. Oh well, not the time. How is he dead? There are no wounds.”
“Something smothered his life down to what it is now. Anyways, how did you beat me here?”
“I teleported.”
“Oh, right.” Luna Facehoofed. “Anyways, I need you to go back, and bring Red Wing here. I need this to stay a secret between you, Celestia, and me. I also need to do damage control with Red Wing to make sure he doesn’t rampage.”
“Yes Princess Luna,” Shining Armor teleported away.
‘I’m going to need to explain this to the ponies of Ponyville, and reimburse them for what they paid him.’
___				____				___

I opened my eyes, only to be confronted by darkness. I tipped my head back, and thought, ‘I’ve been having these weird thoughts lately’. The words appeared before my vision, only to disappear again, with ‘having’ and ‘weird’ stay a second longer. The words ‘real of not?’ flashed before me. ‘Like is any of this for real or not?’ I continued to think, the word ‘real’ and the question marks stayed a second longer than the others this time, but the words did appear.
I closed my eyes as a falling sensation, that made me feel like I was falling through water, came on. I opened my eyes again, and I was standing on a beach. The sun shone in my eyes, and I was forced to cover them. I looked around at the beach around me, and saw clear blue water spread out before me, and a beautiful cloudscape before me. Standing about knee deep in the water a boy about 14 years of age stood. 
I made towards him, feeling like I knew him from somewhere, but as soon as I did, the water started to recede, and I stopped, seeing a tsunami forming before me. The boy turned around revealing a familiar face that I couldn’t place. He reached out his hand, noting that mine was also a hand, and I rushed to it, only to get hit by the wave.
I tumbled, but stopped facing the boy, who reached out his hand again. I tried to grab it, but a current forced me back and away. I floated to the top, and burst through to find that I was in knee high water, facing a girl, one I knew quite well to be Elis, and she was shouting at me, waving. I waved back, and raced to get to her. As I reached her however, she looked up and gasped. Following her gaze, I saw I figure falling with lights around him. It wasn’t long before I realized that the one falling, was me.
As soon as I realized that it was me, I fell back, gasping as my view changed, and flailing to try somehow to regain my balance. Elis gasped again as I fell, and went into a head dive. I lost sight of Elis, and I relaxed. I broke through water, and dove, spinning slightly as I went deeper. Doing a slow forward 180, I landed on a black platform. I took a step and heard a clicking sound. I looked and the black platform eroded into a flock of doves, revealing a bright, colorful, glass platform.
All around me was dark, and but engraved on the platform was Celestia, Luna, and Cadance. Around them was Pinky Pie, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Apple Jack, and Fluttershy. ‘Were am I?’ I thought to myself.
The boy appeared before me, and started walking towards me. “Who are you?” I asked.
“Dad? You don’t recognize me?” he said in a confused voice. I recognized the voice instantly.
“Jake,” I whispered, unbelieving of what I was seeing. I closed the distance, and embraced him, only to receive the same response.
“Mathew!” I heard an ever to familiar voice call out. I tensed and slowly turned around, tearing up when I saw who it was.
“Elis!” Jake released me from the hug and I ran to her, practically tackling her down in joy. Something didn’t feel right, however.
“Red Wing? What are you doing?” I turned to see Rainbow Dash. I turned back to Elis, only to find that I was hugging empty air, furry arms and hooves making a ring. Tears continued to fall. Out of despair this time.
“Rainbow Dash,” I called softly.  She walked to me, and placed a hoof on my shoulder.
I was then tackled by something. Looking at what tackled me, and what was sticking to me, I found it as a white coat, rainbow mane filly, no older than six, maybe seven. “Who is this?” I asked Rainbow Dash quietly.
“That is our daughter! How could you forget your only child?” she accused.
“Daddy!” she said, snuggling against me.
“Only child… My only child is Jake.” 
“Who?”
“Red Wing,” I clarified.
“I don’t know anypony named Red Wing.” 
“Then what about…” I turned to where Jake was a moment ago, but saw nothing. 
“Daddy?” the filly said, turning my attention to her. “What are you doing?”
I turned to Rainbow Dash, but found her missing. I turned back to the nameless filly and found her, as well, missing. I heard footsteps once again, and saw a dark figure materialize before me, although I couldn’t make out a definite form.
“Welcome, Mathew, White Wind, Demon Wheels.” This last name caught my attention. I hadn’t been called that name in 20-22 years, ever since I quit racing to settle down.
“Who are you,” I asked quickly.
“I am the one who will call you. The one who will bring about both calamity and peace.”
“Who. Are. You,” I asked more seriously, thinking that it would hurt Red Wing.
“Don’t worry, I will not harm your son. You are here to be warned, and here to train. Your warning is this: Beware the princess. The one who knows her best, will be right. Now, for your training.” This figure moved away, expecting me to follow. I didn’t.
“The princess, which princess? And who knows her best?” My questions remained unanswered.
“You have much training to do. And remember my warning, it will help you.”
“What kind of training?” I asked, knowing that I wouldn’t get a straight answer.
“Glad you asked. I will be teaching you how to control that currently passive ability of yours.”
“Passive ability?” I asked, slightly confused.
“Controlling the wind. I gave you that ability when I brought you here. I made you a pegasus because of your adrenalin loving,” It explained.
“Wait, you brought me here? But I was able to choose to go back.”
“I let you think you could choose to go back. It was only to bring your son here. I pushed you away so that you wouldn’t be conflicted when you stayed.” 
“I will ask you this one more time, Who Are You?”
“To learn to control your ability, you must first be aware of it,” It said, dodging the question completely.
“Why are you avoiding my questions!” I yelled at it, angry.
“I am only telling you what is needed, White Wind, now back to awareness. I want you to jump and splay your wings.”
“Why should I do as you say? And why call be White Wind when you know my real name?” I asked.
“Simple. Because if you don’t, then you will never be able to see Red Wing again. And I didn’t say your real name because you go by White Wind, do you not?” It explained.
“What do you mean by not being able to see Jake?”
“If you are unable to complete my training, then I won’t send you back, and I will break both my, and Luna’s, spell that is preserving you, and you will truly die. Now enough of this, jump, and splay you wings, and note how there is currently no wind.”
I finally decided to comply, just to see what would happen. So I jumped, and spread my wings. “Nothing is happening,” I said as I floated down.
“Now do the same thing, but try to gain altitude.” 
I sighed, and gave it a try. I jumped, spread my wings, and flapped a few times. I felt an updraft catch me as I flapped my wings, and was launched way up into the air. I was going to float down, but decided to move around. I started going forward, and felt the wind push me. Turning, the wind never once left my back.
I noticed something in my peripheral vision, and stopped to find out what it was. “Congratulations,” I heard, “you have just become aware of it. The next step is to learn how to use it when you aren’t flying,” the thing said, and I knew it was that blob.
“And how do I do that?” I asked needlessly, as it was probably going to tell me anyways.
“First of all, we need to be on the ground.” The platform rushed up to us and stopped a foot from us. I landed quickly afterwards, and It continued speaking, “The key to this, if you didn’t notice, is intention. That is what will allow you to use the ability when you aren’t flying. If you use it correctly, then even magic will have a tough time holding you down.”
“Is it because using magic is also based on intention? And can, through slight movements and placements, be off put?”
“Yes, and I believe that you have experienced this before when you first arrived. Your son has also used this technique, when he fought.”  The area around me changed and I saw my son fighting the Royal Guards, and end up beating all ten he faced. He was finally restrained by Celestia, Cadance, and Shining Armor. “He used the wind to form a barrier against magic, and because wind is undetectable, they didn’t realize what was happening, especially since neither of you physically show signs of being affected,” It explained as the scene unfolded.
“Interesting. Now, why tell me this stuff, but not over stuff like who or what you are?” I asked
“His intent was to be able to move freely. Had he intended to escape the magic, which he ended up doing, then it most likely would have not worked, and it happened here.” The scene finally ended when Jake I caught by Celestia. “And just so you know, the princesses are called Alicorns.”
“I think I get it. Intending to cancel magic with wind will result in failure because the wind isn’t constantly there, allowing the magic to slip through, and once it has ahold, then it can’t be countered. But if you are intending to move freely, then the wind is constantly there because it has to block not only magic, but any debris that it encounters as well. The fact that he fought, even if what looks like subconsciously, gave the wind protecting him a second purpose. It gave him enough strength, or force, to do all that he did, even throw the guards,” I reasoned out in a reasonless situation.
“That is correct. Not let’s see if you can use this theory.” 	
Before I knew it, things where being thrown at me. I started blocking them, but the wind only diverted the things that I saw, leaving the ones that came from behind, to strike. I realized that I needed to change my intent, so I focused not on blocking, but on getting to a certain point. At I moved to this point, the wind’s behavior changed and I started hearing the things that came from behind, hit the ground. Once I got to the point however, the things once again started hitting me. 
“Concentrate. You almost had it there. Just change the intent slightly,” I heard the thing I had yet to make any identification with, say.
I started moving, not knowing where to go, but wanting to get there as fast as I could. Without realizing it, the wind once again protected me. I stopped, and realized that nothing was hitting me, and that the stuff that continued to be thrown at me, diverted, and missed.
“Congratulations. Despite the rough start, it took you a total of 63 days to get here, actually listen and follow directions, and finally learn how to use your ability.”