//------------------------------// // Chapter 21: Itinerant Kingdom // Story: The Equestria Diaries // by Istaran //------------------------------// "Wind Chaser," I said, with the force of an order. [Go up there and check it out.] [Why don't you check it out? You did it!] She objected silently, even as she took flight. "What? You're risking your own mare? What if it's dangerous?!" Bardrick berated me. "It's because it might be dangerous that I have to risk my own. I don't have a sense for magic, she does. I was flying around all night in.. that.. and didn't notice a thing." I watched my loyal drone flying up toward the broken sky, frowning as I realized how impossible it was to tell where the actual break started. It was obvious a three-dimensional zone of some kind in the sky, but you could only see it by its effects on the far distance. But she was able to find it, in much the same way a bird finds a well-cleaned window. And with far too similar of a result. [Help!] she called to me, as I was already getting up to intercept her falling form. A single powerful beat of my wings launched me toward her, while Bardrick moved to stare at the ground where I had just been. I caught her before she hit the water, and slowed to a graceful glide, lightly arcing my way back around toward the shore. "What happened?" I inquired. [Tell me everything.] "I suddenly lost my wing strength, and couldn't hold myself aloft." [It felt like, the closest I can come is the sky there felt like a person whose love has been forceably drained dry. When I fly into it, the magic in my wings failed and I couldn't stay aloft. What did you do?] "I've got you now, just relax." [I'm not sure, other than using my own flight magic a lot. I think the crystal foci in my wings must be sucking the magic out of the world around me to get their power. The shapeshifting probably has the same problem, but I don't use it often enough to create any obvious side effects. I guess staying changed isn't a problem, but if I tried shifting rapidly I might create the same effect.] "It looks like you broke the ground over here," Bardrick called out. Ducking low, he looked up at me through the distortion next to him. "But I guess it's just the air here. Already it's starting to fade though." "Good," I replied as I came to a landing and let Wind Chaser down gently. "The rest of the sky should recover on its own, over time.. I hope. I think I'm done practicing flying though." "I think you should be done flying, period. You're a hazard to those around you!" "You're right," I said, before retracting my wings, redistributing the mass into the stouter form of an earth pony. "I've learned what I need to, should an emergency require it of me, but until then I should stay grounded." Bardrick stared at me, mouth agape. "Great, now you broke Bardrick. Maybe we should go before you break anything else." I nodded my agreement, and began to lead the way out toward the nearest road. "Wait," Bardrick called out. We didn't wait, but by the time we reached the road he rejoined us, with loaded saddlebags and his spear slung over his back. "If I don't stick around to talk some common sense into you, who knows what you'll break next?" "What about your family?" I asked. "They'll be fine, they've got a full harvest to attend to, thanks to that mare of yours." "It will be dangerous. Maybe not right away, but eventually." I fished in my pocket and pulled out my phone. Accursed lock screen! How does one type a password on such a small screen with hooves? Even above the lock I could see part of the last message, from days ago: "" I remembered the buzz, back when I met Zeke, and wondered how he was faring. I remembered he had one of my spiders with him, but I didn't seem to be able to make contact with it from here. At least I was fairly certain he was alive. "I'm a retired soldier. That means I know how to deal with danger, and if it gets the better of me, no one will miss me," Bardrick retorted. "See previous question." I shifted my left hoove into a hand and poked at the controls for a bit, bringing up the Player Locator app before returning my hand to a hoof. Player 9 was nearby, a mere 5 km. I'd need to travel a bit to get a bearing on which direction, as it was too close to be displayed. Players 5 and 8 were also getting close, 9 km, just under the limit. As I watched they both clicked down to 8 km, suggesting they were moving together, closing on my location. It was tempting just to wait, but I didn't want to drag the other griffons into this, especially if any of these unknowns proved hostile. If Bardrick got dragged in at this point, it was his own fault. "They could use a break from dealing with me. Besides, they're not that lucky. I'll be back before they finish enjoying my abscence and start to miss me!" "Fine. Welcome to the Itinerant Kingdom. Watch your step, as the ride can and will get bumpy," I joked as we started down the road to the north. Frank looked up from his phone, and out over the water. "We're getting close, but I don't see any sign of this 'broken ocean' Luna mentioned." Cross Guard yawned, unaccustomed to staying up so late into the day. He had taken the first watch, while Black Rose got some sleep. Blinking, he came up with his answer. "You're looking the wrong way." Frank and Josh looked to see where Cross Guard was looking, then looked up and saw the state of the sky. They exchanged knowing looks, realizing just how familiar the hues looked. "Was this Luna looking down from above? Maybe that means it doesn't go all the way up?" Frank questioned. "She said she had a view from the moon, or something," Frank answered. "So I guess it could go all the way up." "I can see why we need to put a stop to it." Cross Guard confirmed, before waking his slumbering partner. Frank pointed at the little stone tower overlooking the nearby fields on the shore. "This looks to be about where the locator was pointing earlier. Whoever lives there might have some information. It looks like he's moving away now, but I can't tell which direction. Let's go ashore and start asking around." "Do you plan to pay me to wait around for you, or am I free to go?" Josh inquired as he brought the boat toward a stretch of beach. "You've taken enough of our money," Cross Guard said grumpily. "Thank your for your service to the crown," he added insincerely. "Always a pleasure doing business," Josh replied, leaving off the traditional 'with you'. As soon as the passengers had disembarked, Josh sped away to the north, with Sudden Surprise waving a friendly goodbye from the back of the boat. The Swiftwings were cooperative enough, when Frank and his escorts approached them, but they honestly had never seen a human before. They had seen a pair of pegasi, who left with Addula's father heading north, which was as much of a lead as anything, especially after little Addy threw in that the stallion had 'magic blood'. So, with Frank keeping an eye on his phone, they set off to the north. "Go away!" a feminine voice rang out from beyond the treeline to our right, followed by a piercing scream. It sounded like a little girl to me, though I expected it was probably a young griffon. That wasn't reason not to help, though, so I broke into a run while my companions took flight. I saw her through Wind Chaser's eyes while my own line of sight was still blocked by trees: a young human girl, perhaps seven or eight years of age, with a torn dress and a bright yellow hard hat, capped in Mickey Mouse ears of all things. She was standing on top of an old stone tower, being harrassed by a trio of griffons, adolescent males Wind claimed. As we approached, she managed to stun one of them with with a headbutt, before another ripped the helmet off of her head by those ridiculous appendages. Wind and Bardrick called out challenges as they closed to attack, drawing attention from only one of the griffons, while a second managed a fierce kick to the girl's midsection that sent her off balance. She teetered a moment on the edge as I quickly regrew my wings, before tumbling to the ground while I gave them a sharp flick. Despite my efforts, I was a second too late, and maybe even made things worse. She struck the ground under me, bounced up and off of my underside before slamming back into the ground, as I crashed through the rock of the tower wall, skidding painfully within before crashing to a stop against the far wall. Before I could recover, my worst fears were realized as my phone vibrated in my pocket, no doubt announcing another player elimination. The ruffians fled as I walked back toward the little girl slowly, drawn by morbid curiousity to see what I could learn about the innocent I couldn't save. It didn't take them long to recognize the threat of two experienced warriors bearing down on them. They were bullies themselves, not warriors. As I got to the rubble-covered girl, I started to notice a distinct and unnatural lack of blood at the scene. I had never seen such a fall take place, but I was pretty sure there would be a mess. The second thing I noticed was the girl lunge to a sitting position, grab my in a painfully strong embrace and shout out "Pony!" "umm, yes. Sort of. Close enough? What?.. how?" Did whatever magic brought us here simply refuse to let a little girl die? If any place would render a little girl invulnerable, it would be Equestria. Technically we were in Gryphonia, which struck me as a more.. boyish place, but that was being too picky. The little girl rubbed her face in my chest fur for a little while before backing off, and looking embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I should introduce myself first! I'm Relena Swift!" She offered me a hand, which I awkwardly met with a hoof to shake. "I'm.. " I blanked for a moment. "You can call me South Wind. And these are Wind Chaser and Bardrick," I introduced my companions as they landed and approached. "Can I.. can I see your phone?" I asked, hoping it wouldn't occur to her to question how I knew about it. "That's a rather odd request.." she commented, handing it over anyways. I gave it a quick physical check, finding no obvious cracking. It powered on easily enough, and even with a hoof I could manage a generic swipe to unlock. No password, convenient. I saw the message declaring the recently eliminated player: "" 'Swift'? That was going to be a problem. The timing seemed too spot on to be coincidence. I had a suspicion as to just what this 'skull totem' did, but I didn't voice it as I handed back the phone while giving a generic apology. She seemed about to deflect it when she saw the message still on the screen and nodded her acceptance. "The girl seems as unbreakable as you, South, does she have magic blood as well?" Bardrick asked, a bit obliviously. Wind Chaser elbowed him in the gut, leaving him confused for a moment until he realized the tone the scene had taken. "No," I answered, "she had a guadian . But he has done what he could, and now it is up to us to protect her the rest of the way." "I see.. he protected me somehow, didn't he? And now he's.. " she trembled a little, fighting back tears. "I should have been more careful. It's all my fault.." I dragged her into a hug, letting her tears spill down on my shoulder. "It's okay to cry. But it's not okay to blame yourself. The one thing he wanted more than anything else in the world was to protect you, and he has. We'll take it the rest of the way. We'll get you somewhere safe, were there are a lot of nice ponies. And then we will get you home. Okay?" It was obviously too soon to be getting back on the road, so we spent the night in the tower. It looked to have been abandoned many years ago, but more recently patched up an impressive degree. Relena introduced us to her item, a weird flying disk with two smaller disks protruding from the top.. it looked like a 'Mickey Mouse' shaped video screen that was impossibly flexible. It often showed an alien looking smiling face. When asked, 'Toodles' would display a menu of tools apparently re-chosen each day, and could make them appear from thin air. According to Relena he had a distinct knack for knowing in advance exactly which tools she would need that day, and the tools themselves would vanish whenever she stopped paying attention to them. They were generally pretty mundane items, but often with a cartoonish twist: for example, she often got a fishing rod with a glove-like hand at the end that could grab fish or other objects for her to real in, instead of a child-unfriendly fishing hook. Relena told us about her father that night, about how he worked too much most of the time, but how he would take her to their cabin in the woods every chance he got, and taught her all kinds of survival tricks. How going off to work seemed to fill him with a manic edge, but going off to the woods with her always seemed like a joyous relief. The results of his teaching spoke for itself, as we could see around her makeshift home. She even had reserves of preserved fish, enough to feed us all for the night. Given her age I was really impressed. Though.. I was honestly a bit bothered by how quickly she seemed to be recovering from her grief. Maybe it just hadn't become 'real' for her yet? "Relena.. you had a lot to say about your father, but you haven't really mentioned your mother yet. Is she..?" I didn't really no how to finish that question. "Mommy passed away a few years ago," she said quietly. "She had cancer, and kept getting sicker and sicker. It was.. kind of a relief when she finally passed. We had all had time to grieve her loss with her, and we didn't want to see her suffer any more." I was getting a little teary-eyed just hearing about it, but she was quite level and calm. "I don't know where I'm going to go if you do get me home. I wish I could just go to our cabin and live there. But I'm sure it will become a whole big thing. Maybe I'll go live with Uncle Louie. Or maybe I could just stay with the ponies." "Maybe... " [I hate this game!] I informed Wind Chaser. [We need to win, and we need to win fast. No more of this bullshit! No more death!] [Sure thing, my king, but how? You're.. not going to go all scary-you again, are you? I was just getting to like lovey-you.~] [No.. no! I can't use 'him' as a crutch anymore. If there's an obstacle, I'll overcome it myself. We got the Laughter code, the one Robert said they never got before. They're getting the other codes. We just need to gather enough players. Eight remaining.. and 'army man' is a write-off. If we lose two more it's over. We have to win before that!] We settled in for the night, Bardrick taking first watch on the tower top, while Relena took the one bed, and I did my best to satisfy Wind Chaser with a little affectionate snuggling in the middle of the floor. The tower was awfully drafty, with the new entrance I had accidently added, but it was better than nothing.