Wind Witch

The moon shone high overhead, its waxing form casting a silver glow across the dark and barren trees. The browning grass and shed leaves, stiff with morning frost, crackled underhoof as Rose followed Lynn deeper into the woods. The wind was blowing, a constant breeze pushing her back, and occasionally erupting into an intense but short-lived zephyr. Lynn was wholly unaffected, maintaining a swift and steady pace as though each gust was nothing. Her muscles were taut beneath her coat, eyes scanning back and forth with a dangerous sort of wariness, each step firm and determined yet unrushed. Her cape was unfolded to twice its usual length, and flapped quietly in the wind.

Lynn didn’t look back to see if her friend was keeping up - unfortunate, as Rose was failing to do exactly that. Her legs strained as she struggled to quicken her pace; they had been hiking through the forest for at least two hours already, and she ached to the bone. She wanted to call out to her friend to slow down, but the wind stole her words away. A feeling of dull helplessness descended upon the filly, but even that was too intensive for her present exhaustion, and was swept away with the next gust. Rose had reached the limits of her endurance, but somehow the knowledge that it could be no worse bolstered her, and she galloped to draw level with Lynn once more.

The wind stopped.

Silence fell as the two came to a halt on the edge of a clearing. The moon shone down brightly here, the field almost seeming to give off its own ghostly glow. Over the treetops on the opposite side, Rose saw the arching form of one of the Rainbow Bridges; the one that led to Zimsala, if she had to hazard a guess.

“What’s going on?” Lynn’s expression was closed off, and she refused to meet Rose’s questioning gaze, nervously trotting in place as though they hadn’t just walked several miles. An aching worry gnawed at the unicorn’s gut and she was almost overwhelmed with concern for her friend, but she forced herself to remain patient.

“L-listen, Rose. I’m going to be gone for a few days. I’m sorry to ask this of you, but could you please cover for me?” Her questioning tone seemed at odds with her familiar husky voice, for some reason.

“Uh, sure.” Rose blinked at her, something still feeling off about the situation. “But… why did you bring me out here? What’s with all this secrecy?” She took a half-step forward, barely conscious of the action, but Lynn took two steps away.

“I... something came up back home, and I wan- no, need to be there for this.” As she spoke, Lynn pulled a folded-up piece of cloth from her pack; one shake and it unfurled into a slightly flattened witch’s hat. “It’s hard to explain, but I don’t want anyone to try to stop me. Still, someone should know where I’ve gone… so that’s why you’re here.” She removed her crown momentarily, doffed the hat, and replaced the circlet over its wide brim.

Stepping out into the clearing, the witch filly was bathed in the ethereal moonlight. A breeze began to kick up again, leaves blowing past as if to follow Lynn, and she looked back. Her eyes, half-hidden beneath the brim of her hat, were filled with determination, trust, and something else Rose couldn’t quite identify. “I’ll be back soon, hopefully.”

So this was a thing I wrote a couple months back (Around the last time I was posting here) but forgot about in the wake of Rainbow Rocks. Anyway, it's definitely a rough draft, but I think the basic idea was something along the lines of "Witchy Fillies are all mysterious and eldritch, and Rose gets a small glipse of this while seeing Lynn off" but I am not sure where to really go from there. Anyway, it definitely needs to be rewritten and expanded upon (I can get incredibly OCD about proper atmosphere in a story) but I wanted to put this up to ask for any suggestions or thoughts on it.

Re-written? Why? It's good as is. The atmosphere is nice and suspenseful, and aside from maybe descriptions of the characters for newcomers (which really isn't an issue for fanfics once the show takes off) it's clear.

As for where it can go:
-whatever's happening in Zimsala is affecting Funtasia all over, and Rose and co feel the consequences of it. Rose knows it's to do with Lynn, but cannot do anything. Cue communications with mirrors and lots of worrying?

-there's a new Witchy family, the Mystery family, with dark shadowy illusion magic, and being home makes Lynn question if she belongs with the other Witchies or in the Academy. Again, mirror communication could be a thing. Kind of like the video messages in Starship Troopers, maybe?

-the story does a timeskip, and we see Lynn a few days after leaving, no consequences. Except something's changed about her, something's got her rattled. Cue friendshipping and feels.

Does that help at all?