Wind Whistler woke up and felt stiff, really stiff. She felt stiffer than she had felt yesterday when she felt stiffer than the day before. These beds were not the most comfortable they could have brought over from Equestria, but they were not so uncomfortable that she should feel like this. The other ponies also seemed stiffer with each passing day.
Wind Whistler coughed. It was deep cough from the deepest parts of her lungs. She coughed up grainy phlegm and sat it into a spittoon at the corner of the bed. She had never spat like this before, but she was constantly getting fine sand in her mouth, throat, and even lungs.
Wind Whistler rolled out of bed. She forced her wings open which protested every millimeter. She folded them again with just as much difficulty. All of the pegasi were effectively grounded by the outbreak of stiffness, putting their search for greener pastures on hold.
The room she currently called home was one of the apartments in the side buildings of the castle. It was clearly meant for one occupant to do little more than sleep in it. There was a space for the bed they brought in as well as some other furniture. There was also a powder room to the side, but there was no water for the sink or toilet which was not built for a pony anyway.
Wind Whistler stretched to try to get the stiffness out of her. However, it persisted like it had for days. Several ponies had gone to Glory and Truly in the week since the mirror closed, but she had find nothing wrong.
Wind Whistler walked to the door and pushed it open to step out onto the balcony. She was greeted by the cold which did not seem to affect her as much as it did when they first arrived. She made her way down to the ground and walked out of the gate and onto the draw bridge.
The sun had just risen over the horizon. The larger moon was new and therefore unseen despite being in the sky. The smaller moon was also up, but it was still a sliver of a waning crescent. Every day they were farther apart and remaining up farther into the daylight hours and not coming up until later into the night. The larger moon in fact came up just after the sun at this point even if Wind Whistler could not see it.
Galaxy had figured out the moons were traveling in the same direction as the rotation of the planet. The larger, closer moon was rising and setting later at a faster pace than the smaller, more distant moon. She had even calculated their orbital periods. The larger moon completed an orbit once every 30 days or so like Luna’s cycles for Equestria’s moon, and the smaller moon completed an orbit once every 50 days. The phases were slightly different because the planet itself was traveling around the star and the moons reflected sunlight to seem illuminated. This explained why the larger moon was invisible as the sunlit side faced away from them. The solar days and actual days were also slightly off due to their movement around the sun. They were going to completely rewrite the science of astronomy on this planet just based on the lunar and solar cycles.
Then there were those rings of dust and small rocks circling the planet. There were also at least three tiny moons embedded within them, perhaps holding them in place. Wind Whistler thought they would make the night sky too bright, but they did not even cast as much light as a full moon. They were so thin they appeared translucent at night, and a sizeable part of the arc was shadowed by the planet around midnight.
The stiffness crept back into Wind Whistler’s mind. Why is everypony getting stiffer? she thought to herself.
“Not good, not good, not good,” she heard sompony grumble.
She looked to the side and saw Geiger Counter running across the drawbridge. He stopped and an aura surrounded his horn. Wind Whistler could see the panic in his eyes. He swept his horn over her while tapping his hoof.
He tapped faster. “It’s happening to you too.”
“What’s happening?” Wind Whistler neglected the fact he had just scanned her without even asking permission. He was too flustered to consider common courtesies, and she wanted to know what he was going on about.
“When I scanned for organic compounds, I looked for carbon since that’s what all life in Equestria is based on,” Geiger Counter said. “Well, I didn’t find any carbon, so I at first though the soil was dead. However, I thought I would scan for oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen to be sure. I started finding organic compounds everywhere only the carbon had been replaced with silicon.”
“Carbon and silicon are very similar elements,” Wind Whistler said, drawing up the periodic table in her mind and the fact silicon was right under carbon. “It is possible life on this planet is based on it and instead of carbon.”
“Except the soil and plant samples the scouts brought back had normal carbon-based compounds,” Geiger Counter said. “It’s just this valley. I then scanned those samples again and started finding silicon where carbon should be. The amount of silicon increased each day. I started scanning our supplies and found the same thing happening there. Then I started scanning ponies, and…” He stopped.
“And what?” Wind Whistler asked, wanting desperately to know what Geiger Counter was going on about.
“The carbon in our own bodies is turning into silicon,” Geiger Counter blurted. “That’s why everypony is getting stiffer. Silicon-based compounds are not as flexible as those based on carbon. Therefore, tissue like our muscle fiber is losing flexibility. The sand in our mouths and lungs is also because of this. The carbon dioxide we’re exhaling is turning to silicon dioxide.”
Wind Whistler tried to absorb all this. “What does it all mean?” she asked.
“It means we’re all turning to living stone,” Geiger Counter said plainly.
Wind Whistler’s jaw dropped. She had her explanation for the stiffness, but it was not the explanation she wanted.
Spearhead watched as Sparkler took up a canister of gunpowder in her magic. The unicorn mare had a pale blue coat and lavender mane streaked with red. She glared at the canister. The lid unscrewed and pulled away. The canister then upended and emptied its contents on the table. However, instead of black powder, it was light-colored sand tinted yellow by the sulfur.
“Our gunpowder and guncotton is all like this,” Sparkler grumbled. “Apparently it was affected the fastest because it had been refined.”
Sparkler went into a fit of coughing. It was deep and raspy coughing. She finally spat up a wad of dirty phlegm.
Sparkler looked back at the canister with her teeth set on edge and her brow deeply furrowed in an angry grimace. “It’s all useless”—she snarled the word ‘useless’ as she slammed the canister down on the table before releasing it from her magic—“just like we will be: nothing but pony-shaped statues.”
Spearhead did not even think of flinching at Sparkler’s outburst. It was natural for the demolition and munitions expert to be enraged by her materials being rendered useless right under her nose.
“We can’t even use our guns,” Sparkler snarled.
“I doubt firearms would solve our problem, anyway,” Magic Star said. The earth pony with a yellow coat and green mane walked up to Spearhead. “We know this is limited to the valley. There must be something about it causing this.”
“What about leaving the valley?” Sparkler asked. “Maybe it’ll clear up.”
Magic Star shook her head. “The pegasi are already too stiff to fly more than a few meters. There’s also the possibility this could use us to spread past the valley.”
“I have to agree,” Spearhead said. “We need to concentrate on reversing this. We don’t have time to secure our supplies for a long journey.”
Sparkler heaved a sigh. She looked to Spearhead with tears welling up in her purple eyes. “How long do we have?” she whimpered.
Spearhead kept a straight face. He would not show weakness in the face of this crisis. “Geiger Counter believes we will be completely transformed in a month. The crystal ponies have even less time as the crystalline structure of their bodies has accelerated the transformation process. However, this will not be allowed to get that far.”
Spearhead turned to Magic Star. “Work with Galaxy to find the source of this and how we stop and reverse it. Work all day and all night if you have to.”
Magic Star bowed her head. “It will be done, Governor.”
I won’t let this claim the colony, Spearhead thought to himself. We are meant for much greater things.
Wind Whistler coughed. The cough rang in her hears. She finally worked the wad of grainy phlegm into her mouth and spat it out.
She held up her leg and looked at it. There were specks of gray here and there. She had noticed them days before, but just thought they were stubborn dirt. They were getting bigger, and now she knew they were patches were her skin and coat were turning to stone.
She touched a particularly large area just above where her hoof started. It felt hard, but she felt a sensation from it. It was living stone like Geiger Counter had described. She wondered how it could remain alive, but pony science knew nothing about silicon-based life beyond it being a possibility since they had never encountered it.
She put her hoof down which resisted a little. They had much less time than a month. Even if their bodies were not completely transformed, once their joints petrified, they were immobile.
Wind Whistler heard a soft sob from an apartment. She pulled open the door and lloked. Fizzy sat inside with her head low and tears streaming from her eyes. She sobbed softly, her shoulders heaving.
Wind Whistler walked up to her. “What’s wrong?”
Wind Whistler knew exactly what was wrong. It was wrong with everypony. They were turning to stone. The crystal ponies were even worse off. While Wind Whistler had some patches of stone forming, noticeable sections of Fizzy’s body had become like quartz the same turquoise as her coat.
It had to be especially hard on her being so young. She was at that awkward age when you had the body of an adult but your mind was still developing. While they were all scared, it had to be terrifying to her.
“It’s my eyes,” Fizzy said.
Wind Whistler swallowed. She had not considered how their sensory organs would be affected. Crystal pony eyes were the most noticeable difference between them and normal ponies. It might be they were taken sooner by the petrification or rather crystallization in the case of the crystal ponies.
“Can you open them?” Wind Whistler asked, almost afraid to see what had been done to them.
Fizzy turned to Wind Whistler and slowly opened her eyes. Wind Whistler gasped as Fizzy’s eyes were revealed. Her irises looked like cut rubies.
“What’s happened to them?” Fizzy asked. “All the crystal ponies’ eyes are like this.”
Wind Whistler looked at them closely. “It appears the crystal structure of your irises have reorganized into an octagonal pattern.” The center over the pupil was an octagon with trapezoidal shapes around it to form a broader octagonal shape. The crystal was only raised a little like her original iris, and the edges were rounded.
Wind Whistler held up her hoof. “Can you still see?”
“Yes.” Fizzy followed Wind Whistler’s hoof with her eyes as she moved it from side to side. “Still, it’s so weird, and I’m really scared. What’s happening to us?”
Wind Whistler heaved a sigh. “I don’t know, Fizzy. I just don’t know.”
Fizzy wrapped her hooves around Wind Whistler and hugged her tightly like a foal embracing their parent or older sibling when they needed comfort. Wind Whistler was at first taken aback. However, she wrapped her hooves around Fizzy and cradled her. She could feel the parts of Fizzy’s body that had hardened.
Something came over her that she had never felt before. It was not like with Hurricane which she figured was physical attraction. This was a desire to be there for this young mare like a big sister for lack of a better term. She needed somepony to look up to here, and Wind Whistler wanted to be that somepony.
“However, everything will be all right,” Wind Whistler said tenderly. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“I wish I was brave and smart like you, Wind Whistler,” Fizzy said. She then sniffed.
“You are,” Wind Whistler replied, stroking Fizzy’s mane, “just in a different way. That’s what makes life special. How boring would the world be if everypony was like me?”
Fizzy laughed out of a sob. “I guess you’re right.”
Wind Whistler smiled at hearing Fizzy laughing.
Hydia watched the light blue pony with the feathery wings embrace the turquoise pony with a fluted horn coming out of her forehead in the viewing pool. Hydia pointed her index finger at her opened mouth and pretended to gag. She had no idea what they talking about, but she knew it had to be some sappy encouragement. The thought alone made her stomach turn.
“What a disgusting display of affection,” Hydia grumbled. “I want them to suffer, not come closer to together. Now I wish the curse would just hurry up and turn them to stone. I don’t think I can take much more of this sweetness.”
Reeka leaned over the viewing pool. “Maybe they’ll go home now that they know what’s happening to them.”
Hydia grimaced. “Or they could try to remove the curse.”
Hydia turned away from the viewing pool and walked to the spell cabinet. “We can’t let such sweet and caring creatures gain a foothold here.” She opened the cabinet and looked at the scrolls in cubbyholes. “The Gloom Witch Clan has maintained the dark magic in the Land of Nightmares for more than a century, and I won’t be the one to let it fail to a bunch of colorful, little equines.”
The Gloom Witch Clan was the most powerful group of spellcasters on this Earth, coming from an Earth with a rich magic force and the rigid philosophy of might makes right. The royal family had the most powerful magic, and the nobles had the next most powerful. The clan had been somewhere in the middle on their Earth, but here they were the top dogs here.
The clan used their magic to rule through terror like the royals and nobles back home. They transformed people into animals. They reduced kingdoms to ruin. Hydia’s sister was even a cannibal. They made sure everything with sapience on this rock understood who ruled the roost in the most brutal fashion possible or simply wiped them out if they refused to accept their place.
Laying down the law with newcomers like these ponies was especially important. They had to show absolutely no room for resistance. Either the new arrivals were ground into submission in short order or eradicated.
Nowhere was it more important to maintain their absolute superiority than the Volcano of Gloom and surrounding Land of Nightmares. The volcano was the source of their power in this world, and the surrounding wasteland served as a buffer against anything that would want to move against them. These ponies being practically on top of them had to be dealt with as quickly as possible.
“Do you think they could destroy the obelisk?” Draggle asked.
“I don’t plan to give them the chance,” Hydia said.
Hydia scanned the cabinet. She could turn them into frogs. She could turn them into flies. She could even turn half of them into frogs and half of them into flies and watch them eat each other.
“I’ll give the curse another week,” Hydia said. “After that, we’re taking things into our own hands.”
She turned back to Reeka and Draggle. “In the meantime I want you two watching that viewing pool like a hawk. If the ponies get near the obelisk, I want to know immediately.”
Hurricane forced his body to move forward. Patches of rock covered his body, ranging from pinpricks to a couple centimeters across. However, it was his joints and tendons he was worried about. His wings were frozen to his sides, and every step was an ordeal.
He finally stepped the end of the drawbridge. North Star and Lofty followed behind him.
Monsoon stepped out of a nearby apartment. “Anything?”
Hurricane coughed until he could hack up a wad of grainy phlegm.
“No,” Hurricane said. He did not want to shake his head. He let out another cough, but nothing came up. “I don’t even know what we’re looking for.”
“Magic Star believes whatever is causing this is tied to some magical object,” Monsoon said. “I thought it would be in the heart of the valley.”
“Well, we searched for three days and only got rockier for our troubles,” North Star said.
Wind Whistler walked towards a basin at the foot of the flat-topped plateau near the castle. She noticed an earth pony stallion. The stallion had a white coat and a yellow mane interrupted by patches of gray stone, and she recognized him as Topsoil. He looked up at the face of the vertical cliff.
“What are looking at?” Wind Whistler asked.
Topsoil turned back to her stiffly. “I figured I would take in the local geology before I became a part of it. This had been a beautiful valley at one point.”
He motioned as best he could to the basin and the wide trench leading from it. “This had been a lake with a river leading from it, past the castle, into a larger lake, and down the valley.”
He turned back to the cliff face. “Do you see the vertical striations in the rock?”
Wind Whistler focused. There were vertical lines coming down the face and the column of the rocks with the markings was particularly smooth. “Yes. The rocks also appear to be more eroded.”
“This was a waterfall at some point,” Topsoil said. “Rain and snow collected on mountains on the north side of the valley and flowed through aquifers into a spring at the top of this plateau. All the water that went through this valley started up there.”
“Fascinating,” Wind Whistler said, not even trying to sound interested. She had already guessed the system of depressions in the valley were an old river and lake system. If Topsoil had found the source of the magic that had turned half of Fizzy’s body to crystal and slowly claiming them all, she would have cared.
An idea suddenly popped into her head. It was crazy, but it might be true.
“Do you know where Magic Star is?” Wind Whistler asked.
“She should be at the castle,” Topsoil said.
That was all Wind Whistler needed to know. She turned around and ran as well as she could back to the castle. It would have taken a couple minutes to travel the half kilometer to the castle if her joints were not turning to stone and she could fly. Instead it was an excruciating quarter of an hour. However, she finally walked across the drawbridge as determined as ever to get the answers she needed.
“Where’s Magic Star?” Wind Whistler called out.
“I’m here.” Magic Star hobbled out of the main building with Spearhead. “What is it?”
“I have a theory,” Wind Whistler said. “Whatever is affecting us is altering the nature of this valley. Is it possible the source is using a natural process to spread its power?”
“It makes sense,” Magic Star said. “Magic related to nature uses the natural energy flows. What natural process are you thinking of?”
Wind Whistler motioned in the direction of the plateau. “The flow of water. When water flowed through this valley, it started up there. It’s possible the source of magic is up there and using the old water way to spread.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before,” Magic Star said. “Wind Whistler, you’re a genius.”
Wind Whistler was actually classified as a super genius, but she was not one to brag, especially during a crisis. It was just a case of doing what had to be done.
Wind Whistler noticed Spearhead’s mouth spread into a broad grin like a parent watching their foal achieve some milestone. “Excellent work, Wind Whistler. Let us pay a visit to the top of the plateau and see what’s up there.”
Hydia walked up the stairs to the viewing pool chamber.
“I wonder how far that curse has gotten today,” she mused to herself.
Hopefully the ponies were too stiff to move by now. They were scouring the valley looking for the source of the curse. Fortunately they were looking in the wrong direction. Her grandparents were far too clever and adept with the magic arts to do something as obvious or inefficient as place the obelisk in the center of the curse.
Hydia reached the top of the stairs. Reeka and Draggle were slumped against the wall of the viewing pool. They snored loudly as they slept.
Hydia ground her teeth as her face grew hot. She would give them the simplest tasks and yet they would still find a way to mess them up.
“Wake up, you two!” she snapped.
Reeka and Draggle jumped to their feet. At least Hydia still had fear working in her favor with them.
“We were just taking a short nap, Hydia,” Draggle said hastily.
Hydia rolled her eyes. They could have been asleep for hours for all she knew.
“The ponies that went out to search the valley just got back,” Reeka said.
Hydia walk to the viewing pool and looked in. The ponies had noticeable patches of stone on their bodies. Hydia felt satisfaction every time she looked in the viewing pool and saw the curse was progressing nicely.
“Gorgeous,” Hydia said. “The ponies turning to crystal are a little too colorful for my tastes though.”
The image in the pool changed to ponies making their way slowly up an incline on the face of a cliff. Hydia immediately recognized it as the face of the plateau that once had the waterfall. Her satisfaction disappeared for panic to take its place.
“Ack! They figured out where the obelisk is!” Hydia screamed. “Quick, to the airship! We have to stop them before they get to it!”
Hydia turned and ran down the stairs. She was halfway down the stairs when she heard grunts and rumbling from behind her. She looked back and saw and Reeka and Draggle tumbling down the stairs.
Hydia jumped and clung to a stalactite as they rolled down the stairs under her. She let go and landed on the stairs. Reeka and Draggle hit the floor with a thud and sprawled out across the ground.
Hydia stormed down the stairs. “Don’t just lay there, get the airship prepped!”
Reeka and Draggle scrambled off the ground and towards the hangar.
Hydia was not going to lose the obelisk to those equines. They were apparently the ‘Wipe them off the face of the Earth’ type. I should have done this sooner, she thought angrily.
Wind Whistler pulled herself up onto the top of the plateau. She got her front half up and then worked her back hooves onto the flat top. She looked back at the valley. She could see the castle across the dried riverbed.
She turned back to where they had climbed. The top of the cliff was flat. It jutted into the valley from the tall line of mountains making up the north side. The cliff was maybe two hundred meters high, but the nearest mountain was easily two kilometers from foot to summit. The mountains were as dry as the valley.
Topsoil led the others to the top. Wind Whistler could tell they were in as much pain she was from climbing up here. The unicorns appeared in colorful flashes.
At least we still have unicorn magic, Wind Whistler thought.
“Okay, we’re up here,” Gusty said grumpily. “What are we looking for?”
“Maybe that,” Surprise said.
Wind Whistler turned to Surprise. She pointed into a large depression taking up much of the plateau. Wind Whistler walked up to the edge and looked in.
In the middle was a large piece of obsidian sticking out of the ground. It was at least three meters tall and a meter wide. It was carved into the shape of an octagonal prism with an octagonal pyramid on top. It was hard to tell from its jet black surface, but Wind Whistler thought she could see something craved into its faces.
“It looks like you were right, Wind Whistler,” Topsoil said. “This depression is where water would gather before going over the fall. I think that thing is over the spring.”
“But is it turning us to stone?” Gusty asked.
“There’s only one way to find out.” Magic Star walked into the depression and made her away carefully towards the obelisk. She slowly approached it. She touched it and immediately let out a shrill scream. Wind Whistler could see Magic Star’s hoof touching the obsidian turning completely to stone and the petrification working quickly up her leg.
Wind Whistler bounded down into the depression. She ran as best she could to Magic Star.
“I can’t move my hoof!” Magic Star screamed.
Wind Whistler grabbed Magic Star and tried to pull her away from the obelisk, but she was too heavy and stiff. She braced her hoof on the obelisk and pushed off carrying Magic Star with her. Even for that split second she could feel her hoof petrify.
Magic Star fell backwards with her. She looked to her leg which was completely stone to almost her shoulder. “Thanks, Wind Whistler. I think this confirms the obelisk is the source of the trouble.”
Wind Whistler got to her hooves. Fortunately, the petrification did not reach much past her hoof to impede her movement. “I’ll help you out of here.”
Magic Star leaned on Wind Whistler. A blue aura suddenly surrounded Magic Star, and she lifted off the ground. Wind Whistler watched Magic Star lift higher. She then turned to the edge of the depression. Buttons stood there with the others and had the same color aura around her horn.
“I got you, Magic Star,” Buttons said.
Magic Star settled gently on the ground as Wind Whistler made her way over the edge. Magic Star wobbled slightly now with her petrified leg permanently raised.
“Thanks,” Magic Star said.
“All right, we know that thing is responsible for all this,” Sparkler said, “but what can we do about it? Our explosives are useless.”
A cruel cackle resounded around them. Everypony looked around. Wind Whistler felt a chill go down her spine.
Wind Whistler then caught another sound. It sounded like an engine getting closer. She then saw an odd airship made up of a ramshackle galleon suspended under a patchwork envelope. Two engines with propellers were bolted to the sides of the galleon and spewing gray exhaust.
Three beings stood on the deck. They were bipedal and standing erect, but the oldest one at the wheel appeared to have a hunched back. Wind Whistler figured they were primates as their body structure resembled apes to a degree. However, they were hairless except for their manes and their skin was pale in complexion.
The airship came closer and Wind Whistler could make out more of their details. All three were female if Wind Whistler’s assumptions about body type were correct. The tall, skinny one wore an ill-fitting, patched up jumpsuit and pink kerchief over her ratty red mane. The fat one had her black mane in pigtails and wore an orange dress just as patched up as the skinny one’s jump suit as well as an undergarment of some kind the dress failed to cover completely. The one with the hunched back was a gnarled old nag with a bulbous nose between her large, bulging eyes. Her ratty, red hair came out from under the hood of the dark blue, patched-up robe she wore with an ornament topped by small horns above her neck. They were ugly creatures, at least be pony standards.
The airship circled around them. The hunchback let out a cackle like the one before. She said something a strange language.
“What did she say?” Gusty asked.
The hunchback started screaming something in her language Wind Whistler figured was an expression of anger and frustration over them not understanding.
“Babel, translate,” Spearhead said to the blue unicorn with a straight, blue mane streaked with white.
“Hopefully she will ramble enough to form a translation matrix,” Babel said. A green aura surrounded his horn.
The hunchback continued to ramble in her language. “—you blasted creatures deaf?” she suddenly shouted in Equestrian or rather they understood it as if she was speaking Equestrian.
“I think I got it,” Babel said.
“Can you start from the beginning?” Spearhead asked. “We couldn’t understand you before.”
The hunchback snarled. “As I was saying—” she cleared her throat “—welcome to the Land of Nightmares, my little ponies.” She put special emphasis on ‘little’ and ‘ponies’ in a mocking way. “How do you like our cursed valley?”
“So, you did this to us?” Gusty asked.
“In a way,” the hunchback said proudly. “I’m Hydia, the head witch of the Volcano of Gloom.”
“We’re Reeka and Draggle.” The fat one pointed to herself signaling she was Reeka and then to the skinny one signaling she was Draggle.
“We’re Hydia’s successors,” Draggle said.
“Shut up!” Hydia snapped. The two flinched and looked up at her fearfully.
“You would have been better off staying home,” Hydia said, clearly to the ponies. “This world is not for the weak.”
“Who are you calling weak?” Gusty snorted and tried to paw the ground, but could barely move.
“Why did you do this?” Wind Whistler asked. “We can peacefully coexist.”
Hydia threw her head back in bellowing laughter. “That’s rich.” She heaved a sigh as she finished her laughing fit. “We live by the law of the jungle here. It’s kill or be killed. Speaking of which, now that you have found our obelisk you have to be eliminated.” Hydia drew out the word ‘eliminated’ as she pulled the opposable extension of her grasping limb across her neck like it she was slitting it.
“You have to beat us first,” Gusty said. A tornado formed around her horn and shot forward.
The tornado struck the airship and blew them away. The witches shrieked as they their airship grew more distant.
Gusty concentrated until she gave up and panted. “That bought us a minute.”
Spearhead snorted. “If I could move better, I could use my magic to plow through that blasted obelisk.”
Wind Whistler furrowed her brow as best she could. It was the time to put her full intellect into something. She wanted a challenge, and this situation was it. She had found her first gazelle and she had to pounce. The stakes were higher than she had ever faced, but a challenge should have huge rewards or dire consequences. She considered everything at their disposal which was not much. They basically had themselves. She then hit on Buttons’ unusually powerful levitation magic.
She turned to Buttons. “Can you use your magic to throw Spearhead into the obelisk?”
“I can try,” Buttons said. “I don’t know what good that would do against that thing.”
“They’re coming about!” Topsoil shouted.
Wind Whistler looked back to the airship. It had turned towards them and was steaming in their direction.
“Just get me moving forward, and I can do the rest,” Spearhead said.
“Okay, I’ll see what I can do,” Buttons said.
An aura surrounded her horn and Spearhead. Spearhead lifted off the ground. He tucked his hooves in as best he could. “Just make sure I’m on target.”
“I’ll back you up as far as I can,” Buttons said.
Spearhead floated back.
Buttons swallowed. “Here we go!” She threw her head to the side.
Spearhead flew forward going faster and faster. He pointed his head forward. The blue aura released him. A red aura surrounded his horn and enveloped his body. He accelerated at an incredible rate into the depression.
Wind Whistler bit her bottom lip as she watched Spearhead shoot straight at the obelisk. This was a huge risk. Cheetahs were gamblers. If they failed to deliver the killing blow, the quarry would escape and they had expended all that energy for nothing. She could have just sent their governor to his death if she was wrong.
Spearhead struck the obelisk. It exploded into shards, and he plowed into the ground past it. The aura exploded off him and he stood up apparently unharmed.
“No!” Hydia screamed in the distance.
Wind Whistler felt the ground rumble under her. She looked into the depression. The stump of the obelisk shattered and a geyser of water shot up from hole it left.
Spearhead disappeared and reappeared beside Wind Whistler. Wind Whistler watched the water fly dozens of meters in the air and rain back down. She squinted as she thought she saw a blue glow to it.
She looked down into the depression. The glow spread along the walls of the depression now filling with water. It continued to spread past the edge and watched over them.
Wind Whistler felt a warm, relaxing feeling come over her. She looked down and saw the patches of stone shrink away to nothing as the glow covered her body. She felt her body lose its stiffness. She opened her wings which she had not been able to do in a day.
The stoned parts of the other ponies returned to normal. Magic Star put down her leg as it returned to normal. “That’s so much better.”
Wind Whistler turned to the valley. The glow spread across it. She grasped as she saw the bare ground transform into grass. Trees and bushes sprang from the ground and almost instantly grow into maturity. The hills became rounder. What had seemed so harsh an barren just moments before seemed lush and welcoming now.
The glow around Wind Whistler retreated. She looked back. The glow concentrated around the dock of her tail. It flashed and left a white ribbon tied into a neat bow. The glow around the other ponies transformed into ribbons around the docks of the mares’ tails and kerchiefs around the necks of the stallions.
“This can’t be happening!” Hydia shrieked, now much closer.
Wind Whistler looked up at the airship looming over them.
“That’s it, equines,” Hydia snarled. “You’re dust.”
Hydia picked up a large book. She paged through it and quickly scanned it. She grinned broadly. “Let’s see how you little ponies like this.” She again put an emphasis on the ‘little’ and ‘ponies.’
She pointed at them. She chanted some strange words that did not translate, and a lightning bolt shot from her finger straight at Buttons.
Buttons winced. The lightning bolt shot towards, her, but stopped before hitting her as the pink ribbon around her tail glowed blue for a second.
Wind Whistler’s jaw hung open in shock. She looked up at the airship.
Hydia dropped her arm. “No. It can’t be.”
A pulse blasted from the geyser. The pulse hit the airship and blew them backwards while not affecting Wind Whistler of the others in the slightest. Hydia and the two others screamed and shrieked. The airship blew away like when Gusty hit them. However, they flew farther and farther away. Eventually it was nothing but a speck in the sky.
“No, it can’t be,” Hydia sobbed. “It just can’t be. The waterfall can’t be back. It can’t be protecting those ponies. The valley can’t be filled with life again. I can’t fail mom and dad.” She broke down in tears.
Everything her parents had worked for. Everything she promised on their deathbeds to continue. The greatest achievement in the clan’s history here was undone by colorful, little ponies of all things, and all she could do was watch.
“Let’s go home, ma---I mean Hydia,” Draggle said, taking the wheel. She brought them about and headed for home.
Hydia looked back at the valley, now green, and bright, and colorful. She clenched her teeth and snarled. She should not give into despair. She should turn it into rage against these intruders. “I hate those little ponies. I hate them more than anything else on this worthless lump of rock. Even if it’s the last thing I do, I’ll see them all wiped off the face of this Earth.”
“We’ll get them next time, Hydia,” Reeka said.
Wind Whistler took a step back mentally to try to absorb it all.
“What just happened?” Gusty summed up Wind Whistler’s thoughts nicely.
“We just witnessed some very powerful magic being unleashed,” Magic Star said. She looked back at the red ribbon tied around her tail. “And I think we’re wearing some of it.”
“I did see Buttons’ bow illuminate when Hydia’s attack failed to strike her,” Wind Whistler said. “Perhaps the ribbons and kerchiefs we’re now wearing are some kind of protective spell.”
“But, all we did was unstop a waterfall,” Topsoil said.
Magic Star turned back to the depression which was now filled with water and fell down the cliff. “These falls must have magical properties of their own. The obelisk was not just there to turn everything in the valley to stone, but also keep its power in check.”
The geyser subsided and sank into the water. The blue glow had also faded, but Wind Whistler suspected whatever magic it had cast was still in effect.
“I wonder how the others are faring,” Babel said.
“I’ll go see.” Wind Whistler spread her wings and took to the air. It felt so good to be able to fly again. She glided down into the now lush and green valley towards the castle.
She saw ponies gathered in the courtyard. The stallions had colorful kerchiefs around their necks and the mares had colorful ribbons tied in bows around the dock of their tails. She saw Fizzy jumping up and down and waving. She had a pink ribbon in her tail that matched the one in her mane.
Wind Whistler landed in front of Fizzy. Her body was free of the crystallization. However, her irises still had the octagonal structure.
“You guys did it!” Fizzy cheered. “I don’t know what you did, but whatever it was you did it.”
Wind Whistler was so pleased to see Fizzy again in good spirits.
“What about your eyes?” Wind Whistler asked. “It looks like the irises retained their altered structure.”
“Well, they were crystal to begin with,” Fizzy said. “I think I can even see a little better with them this way.”
A red flash caught Wind Whistler’s attention. She looked behind her and saw Spearhead walk up to them. “Well done, Wind Whistler. You’ve saved the colony.”
Wind Whistler pawed the ground bashfully. “I merely figured some things out and collected information. It was you and Buttons who actually destroyed the obelisk.”
Spearhead grinned. “I would like to invite you to dinner. There are things I wish to discuss with you in private.”
Wind Whistler was speechless and pulled up a complete blank as to why Spearhead would want to talk to her in private.
“These are matters regarding the future of the colony,” Spearhead said. “Please say you will attend.”
“I would be glad to join you for dinner.” Wind Whistler bowed.
Spearhead looked through the gate to the valley beyond. Wind Whistler followed his gaze. A blanket of lush grass covered much of the ground and trees and bushes both deciduous and evergreen were clustered in places. The deciduous trees were bare, and the grass would probably go dormant quickly in the cold.
It reminded Wind Whistler of home. However, it lacked that sameness. Perhaps it was the alien sky above it, or the knowledge this was just the small part of big world where anything was possible. Whatever the case, she felt welcome in this world for the first time.
“The original plan was to leave this valley behind,” Spearhead said. “However, now that it bears life, I think it would be a waste to give it up.”
Spearhead looked to Wind Whistler. “What should we call our new valley?”
“Dream Valley,” Wind Whistler said immediately.
Spearhead raised an eyebrow.
“Hydia called this place the Land of Nightmares,” Wind Whistler said. “I believe Dream Valley is a suitably defiant name for the little piece of paradise we’ve made out of the wasteland.”
Spearhead grinned. “I like the way you think. Dream Valley it is.”