Land of Friendship and Magic

by Archmage Ansrit

Windstorm

I should start making notes, or a journal... I didn't know if I could trust my memory with everything. Well, I should fire up the note app and start right now, before things started getting too interesting and details started getting lost.

It was a semi-quiet first week in the land of Equestria...

I found my dream-self's room and placed the devices there, quickly cooking up a new pair of glasses that were also computers, and clothes. Many changes of clothes. I used one of Whistler's feathers and a tuft of hair from her coat to make an outfit - predictably pink, but really, really soft! Like, dear God, bedding made of that would be the most popular thing in the history of forever. I used that and clouds to made a pillow and a mattress.

Pink-ness be darned, I didn't have the lies and illusions torn out of me just to conform to someone's definition of 'manly'. It's simply the best bed I've ever slept on.

The sprite... disappeared. Something about corrupted data and missing functions. It said that it would have to 'effect debugging and repairs'.

I don't think it'll be any time soon.

I also started talking to the artifacts that brought me here. They told me about what they were doing, why my dream-self was like that, and offered to help me with their knowledge. They told me about themselves as I asked... I will make notes on magic on the future. Oh, and one of them also said that there was an easy solution to the 'pink bed' dilemma, but I don't care about that.

I started trying my hand at wielding swords... and I wasn't half-bad!

OK, so that was more the work of the card than mine, but I could feel it slowly... integrating? I could feel how the movements slowly became mine mine. I was getting stronger from the levels, as evidenced by the second phantom to appear - a Foot Clan ninja, thankfully one from the bottom of the ladder. I used my blade - a simple iron sword - and dented it and his weapon, stunning him both from the surprise and the actual physical shock long enough for me to punch him into a tree.

Wind Whistler's mom... like her daughter, took everything in stride, and was helping me train as my dream-self! She took a liking to that... maybe a little too much. Then again, she was the maternal type, and found cuteness in pretty much everything.

She even helped my dream-self carry my waking-self back to the room, in the middle of the night. Well, we encountered a Ropen on the way back, but I was getting the hang of manipulating The Breeze, preventing the bat creature from using its echolocation properly. I gained a level again, either causing my ability to improve or because of it.

My general dexterity got much better, and, on top of the practice I was doing, got better at drawing. Huge help, too, since I could get some useful things out of the ghost images.

Wind Whistler tried what anyone else would when given a machine that could make just about anything with the touch of a keyboard. She closed her eyes and jabbed at the thing. Surprisingly, a guitar came out! Without having ... I dunno, an I-beam embedded on it or something. I actually knew how to play that, instead of the intense trial-and-error of my ocarina playing - although Whistler liked the ocarina! She even was better than me at it... figuring out how ponies could play the guitar and the ocarina without fingers was not worth the headache; I just chalked it to 'magic pony magic hooves' magic' and kept going.

It took me three days after arriving at Equestria, but I noticed that my eyes were still brown, instead of changing to match John's.

In my defense, dream-self training was incredibly confusing. And tiring.

And that was not the only source of excitement, either. Meadowlark was a maternal pony, as I've already said; she spoke about making an addition to the family...

It took a while, but Celestia calmed down significantly... her hair was losing it's shine and color, however, and was starting to sag.

There was an interruption - it had started to rain suddenly, with a column of magic power similar in appearance to a dust devil at the center of the gathering clouds.

It was like throwing a switch, but getting a short circuit. The princess snapped to attention, eyes trying to focus, but betrayed by her trembling and uneven breathing. She quickly cantered out, trying to convince the Bearers that 'this is more important than me' while preventing herself from being convinced to let Luna handle it.

Celestia threw an illusion around herself; quick, dirty spellcasting, but still much better than what one would expect from somepony in her emotional state - after all, Typhon might have never been fooled by any of them, but discovering that had been excellent practice. It was a very useful skill to have, and a shame to let it rust...

Twilight tried once more to convince her, before she got to the balcony, but Celestia 'reminded' her that, as a princess, she had to be seen as strong.

To Twilight's relief - and the relief of all of the others, to tell the truth - Celestia merely conjured a telescope and sighed, saying that she could see Luna already there. She wasted no time in getting binoculars for herself and her friends.

Typhon was facing some sort of projection, which did something with a card.

"What was that?" Twilight asked, shivering, before reading the thing that had appeared in front of her.

Celestia also had one of those, and quickly read it and committed it to memory.

"I think... it is something he called a Law Card; he used them sparingly, mostly for some of his more difficult escapes. They make rules - it seems that the purpose of that particular one is to keep the audience and the fighters separate." She said, remembering the cards that made certain kinds of spells - and even mundane actions - 'against the laws'... oh, she could break through them, even the more powerful ones like this one seemed to be, but it was difficult.

"So, what, we can't do anything?" Dash asked.

"It would be futile. Attempting to interfere directly is now literally against the laws of the universe." She sighed. "Fortunately they go both ways; the worst we can expect is damage to the surroundings, and, although still possible for it to harm bystanders, the evacuation saw to it that the citizens remain safe. Breaking the magic would cause more harm than good if Typhon is involved."

Twilight watched with great interest. She wanted to know more about Typhon, trying to gleam something that might help... well, the trainwreck she was now in the middle of. Shining had said more than once that there was a lot to be known about a pony by seeing how they fought.

She didn't know what to make of it just yet, but it was clear that Typhon was no stranger to combat; from what little she had gotten out of history books and the princesses, his exploits might even have been understated. They were both fast, very much so; it was hard to follow all the blurs of metal and the punches that were thrown at great speeds. Typhon... he moved oddly; it was like he was being slow at times, but he quite clearly wasn't if he managed to stop the red sword from hurting him and retaliate successfully. It played hell on perception, and a thousand questions danced around on her head, merely from his style.

And the fact that he was using scissors that had the theme of the princesses of Equestria was just another oddity.

Just as quickly as it began, it was over. The black sword speared through the red-clad ghost and then the scissors had cut her neck.

Twilight didn't even have the time to blink, gasping, but that same shock made her realize that the ghost was unharmed... but vanishing. Laughing.

Then he was gone.

"As informative as that was, you were about to say something, princess." Twilight... pointed out.

Celestia sighed again and turned back inside, having seen how Luna was taking care of it.

"Typhon could always tell how my sister and I felt. We were completely transparent to him." She inelegantly allowed herself to fall on a cushion, one of her many diaries on the table - the very one she had been reading to refresh her memory before Twilight and the others arrived, in fact. "He spoke with such certainty, and such accuracy, that I often wondered if he could actually see the future."

"We did not know much about him, only that he most often appeared in the middle of things breaking or being destroyed. The country was unstable, and sealing Tiamat nearly brought the dragons on us were it not for..." Princess Celestia shook her head. "I am straying from the topic. Typhon may have gone out of his way to ensure that nopony got injured during his escapades, but he simply could not be allowed to roam freely, not if he was causing that many damages."

"Um, excuse me, I mean, no offense..." Fluttershy began, stopped, then inhaled deeply before continuing. "Wouldn't it have been better to, um, ask?"

Princess Celestia had a far-off look for a moment; before long, her left eye twitched, a delicate frown forming on her face.

Then she sighed and slumped back on her seat.

"He said that I was not a princess worth getting behind of; too inefficient and blind. That what he did was too important to allow himself to be impeded by such a... misguided and confused filly playing princess."

"Inefficient?"

"He said that I wasted too much time doing things that were ultimately useless." She snorted.

Twilight cringed, and it didn't escape Celestia's notice.

"Twilight... do you want to say anything?"

"Well, princess, I- I can be honest with you, right? Like, completely honest?" She asked in turn, only to wince at Celestia's expression of pain, as if the doubt had physically hurt her.

"You- you know you can come to me for anything that weights on you." The waver in her voice was noticeable, and Twilight felt rotten.

'I think not; all you're earning is distance and fear. You'll get sick of it sooner or later, mark my words.'

"Wel-well, I seem to recall your schedule... it's full of redundant meetings and issues that quite frankly should not be a-any of y-your business." Twilight swallowed, but took the princess's face of confusion as asking for an explanation. "There are meetings for business owners to talk to you about their strategies to increase profits, when usually they would not bother to tell that to the local mayor; even if we start talking about taxes, there are procedures, trade guilds... princess, you have three full days' worth of meetings every week only to get all of the relevant information at two separate hour-and-a-half meetings at the start and the end of every month."

The others stared at her with incredulity.

"I... I asked around, when I had some free time and wanted to see if you had any." She blushed sheepishly, rubbing a foreleg with the other.

"My dear Twilight, why didn't you say anything?" Celestia was... gobsmacked felt like an adequate word.

"I-... I thought that you knew what you were doing, that you had some plan or some deeper purpose. That... that you couldn't make a mistake, much less one so obvious as that."

'You'll get sick of it sooner or later, mark my words.'

"I do make them, but I never let anypony know... not even myself. I wanted to feel bad for the accident, I wanted to feel rotten for placing the blame on somepony who could not defend himself. I drowned it out, saying that... that something could happen to the country! That... that admitting my mistake would make me regret it more than Windstorm hating me."

And the worst part - the part that made it hurt the most, was that Windstorm's anger died down at the hooves of his own argument. That he knew the reason she did it, and, though he did not agree to her methods, he could not stay angry at her for her intentions.

"He didn't, however. That was what made it so bad. He wasn't enraged for long; he was disappointed."

'I cannot stay angry, that's why I'm crying.'

"He was so hurt, and all that did was make him lose faith in me." The old sting made her feel like she was sinking further into the cushion, running the risk of being smothered by it.

"The Windstorm?" Rainbow Dash asked, with much more interest than Twilight would have expected from her. "He started the first public flight school, and did all sorts of great things for weather studies... Cloudsdale wouldn't be half as awesome as it is today if it weren't for that."

Well, that explained the interest.

"Oh, I knew him very well... in fact, he was similar to Typhon in many ways." If only Typhon had been a pony... no, it was useless to think like that; that was the very way of thinking that he berated her for. Being human should have nothing to do with how she treated him, and being a pony likely wouldn't have made any difference in how he acted.

Celestia reached for the diary.

It was nearing the time to set the sun, and my sister was actually standing next to me, wondering why I hadn't yet ceased activities.

I told her it was because somepony came to see me for something concerning a colt left homeless, which calmed her down and actually made her want to witness the audience.

It was Meadowlark and her daughter, Wind Whistler.

Next to them was a pegasus colt, at first glance one could say that he was of Wind Whistler's age or at the least close to it. He had a silver coat, his wings gradually darkening towards the tips, with a white-tipped dark grey mane and tail nearing black - even his cutie mark was gray, being a cloud with a tornado.

The only color on him were his eyes; they were the most shockingly vivid blue eyes I had seen to that day. Wind Runner inherited those very eyes from him.

He bowed, just like everypony else, but, after bidding him to rise, he did what few had done - something that, to this date, remains disappointingly rare.

He looked at me, straight into my eyes.

He was not afraid, nor was he awed at seeing a goddess... he was awed at seeing me. I cannot explain properly how I knew, I simply knew; he was looking at me, admiring my appearance for its own sake, seeing me - and I still do not know how to explain the difference - as a pony to be met and not a goddess that is all but taken for granted.

I think that was why his rejection stung so badly.

He was not in the best of conditions, however. He looked tired, as if he was about to fall asleep, and had trouble standing, like his body weighted him down.

He was but a Wayward Vagabond, bereft of family and home. He never elaborated, only saying that he had been staying with a distant member of his family, but now he was... alone. This was shortly after Discord's defeat, and cases like his were sadly not uncommon; some ponies could not recuperate fully, or maybe this relative was simply old or sick from other causes.

He had nothing but what he was carrying with him when he was found. He had lost all else. He only had a drawing to show as the symbol of his family.

A tornado snaking its way to the ground from a storm cloud, with a circle around it; there were dots on the circle which were supposed to represent pegasi, but the size of the drawing did not allow much detail.

Meadolark wished to house him; he was the only pony with his skills, and did not wish for him to be left without a home.

Naturally, we inquired as to the nature of these skills - now, we merely intended to ask for an explanation, but he stepped forth to give us a demonstration.

He closed his eyes, spreading his rather large wings as he inhaled. He exhaled as he closed his wings.

He repeated this three times, much more slowly each time; instead of repeating a fourth, he began to sway, opening only one wing at a time in the direction of his body's movement.

Then he started a small sideways gait, stopping when his wing was fully extended and going back as it retracted and opened the opposite.

Back and forth, he almost seemed to dance despite the simplicity of the movement.

I was about to ask what was he doing, despite the risk of breaking his concentration, but I was stopped by the sound of rustling cloth.

The tapestries at the sides were moving! Slowly at first, and only those closest to him; understandable, after all, they had gold and silver woven into them. That just made it all the more impressive.

I was about to comment again, but was stopped as he missed a step and tripped, sending him to the floor. He grunted as the air was driven from his lungs, and he did not even open his eyes as he laid there. Meadowlark and Whistler rushed to his aid, but he was either in pain, or his exhaustion was much more severe than I had first thought.

I assisted him with the gentlest levitation I could manage, carefully setting him across Meadowlark's back. He appeared to be making an effort to remain awake.

Luna, of course, approved of her request immediately (she is quite protective of foals, and would have even if he were just like any other colt), and thus we granted her the usual compensation - they were not poor, oh no, quite the contrary, but it was the procedure we decreed.

Meadowlark was to take care of him, educate him, and provide for him to the best of her ability. I also informed the mages of the court, as this was solid proof that Starswirl the Bearded's Treatise of the Three Tribes was absolutely, undeniably correct. Starswirl and Clover studied the Wind Shaping of the Wind Family, and became close to Wind Whistler and Windstorm as a result.

Nowadays, I cannot help but look back and bemoan how blind I was.

I almost prevented them from coming together...

Yes... you are right, my dear Twilight, I did not. Not then.

In the end, however, I separated them regardless.