Broken Feathers: Desert Storm

by That Avi Nerd

The Clouds Are Alive

"Oh this is going to be so much fun!" The rather chipper voice belong to that of a sandy colored earth pony mare. Her mane was a mix of pink and faded blue, and there were three small wrapped candies for a cutie mark.

Bon Bon was sitting next to Lyra Heartstrings in a seat on the third car on the Equestrian Express. The ponies on the train were growing restless, and Bon Bon's hyper activity wasn't helping. They had been on the train for eighteen hours, all on their way from Ponyville and heading to Dodge Junction. There was still an hour between them and their destination. Most ponies had tried to get as much sleep as they could. Bon Bon had all the energy in the world and thus was a wake nearly the entire time, vibrating in her seat. Lyra, on the other hoof, had wanted to get some sleep but was otherwise unable to. She frustratingly rubbed both her hooves against her temples, sighing heavily.

"Bon Bon..." she said, laying her head against the rest behind her and staring up at the ceiling. "We've been on this train for over eighteen hours... and I haven't gotten any sleep. I haven't gotten any sleep because you haven't gone to sleep. So tell me..." She sat up and put her arms on Bon Bon's shoulders to stop the sandy mare from bouncing any more. "How in Celestia's name are you so hyper?"

"I'm not hyper, I'm excited!"

"Ugh. What for? It's just a silly little concert! You've gone with me to hundreds of these things."

"Yeah but none of them have been to a nice little town in the desert. It'll give me a chance to get my own name out there; to sell my candies. Finally I'll have a competing chance against Sugar Cube Corner. Come on, it'll be a fun experience. We'll be able to go out afterwards and see all the sights..."

"Bon Bon."

"Yeah?"

"There are no sights."

"What?"

"Dodge Junction is literally in the middle of a flat desert plain with nothing but a few dunes around it. There. Are. No. Sights. To. See."

"Something different than Ponyville and Canterlot, at least."

"So Las Pegasus wasn't different?"

"Hey! I don't even remember Las Pegasus, so how should I know?" There was a pause. "Was it different?"

"I... I think? I don't know... Maybe? Minuette should know; she was with us."

"Was she in as poor... condition... as us?"

"Honestly I can't remember. I don't think so. It's unlikely that she was."

"Yeah, she's got that thing against hard cider, doesn't she?"

There was a pause in their conversation.

"I don't know about you," Lyra said, "but I have to perform in a concert in a few hours; I need some sleep. So could you please just... calm down?"

"Fine..." Bon Bon sighed and made herself comfortable. Lyra rested her head against her friend's shoulder and closed her eyes. The train soon was able to rock her to sleep.

A little over an hour had passed when the train finally arrived at the small station in Dodge Junction. Bon Bon managed to wake Lyra up, and together the two mares stepped onto the platform and awaited their luggage to be unloaded. A few bags and a large case that contained a harp were brought out by the stewards of the train. The concert wasn't set to start until the late afternoon, which was still a few hours away, so the ponies went to a small hotel they were staying at to leave their luggage. Crew ponies for the concert had taken the harp and moved it to the stage, where they were preparing for the event that was to be taking place there later that night.

Lyra opted to stay in the hotel and catch up on as much sleep as she could. With nothing else to do, Bon Bon set a course to explore the town and all of its sights. It was a small and rickety looking town with sand in every crevasse. If a steady wind came rolling through then the entire place might have been blown to the ground. The small town of somewhere between twenty-five and fifty ponies wasn't much to look at.

Though with a resent discovery of silver outside the badlands, the mayor of the little establishment had planned a little celebration in the hopes of drawing in a population to his little village. In his mind, they had a shot at keeping with Appleloosa for best town in the desert if it went as planed. Lyra Heartstrings was by far perhaps the biggest performer he was able to get to come to the celebration, however, after receiving several rejections from others like the Wonderbolts, and DJ-Pon3. A small stage had been set up in the center of town were Lyra would be playing her harp for the gathering crowds of ponies, hopefully luring them in from the train station as they got off to head for the new silver mines. On the other side of town, a magnificent red tent had been set up where the Flim Flam brothers would be performing a circus-like show to entertain those who had already chosen to stay.

Bon Bon moved about the settlement, keeping to herself, trying to find the best place to set up a small stand to sell samples of her confectionaries. She made a mental note to pay a visit to the local general store the next day; if her candies were popular enough in the desert village than maybe the owner would be willing to act as an extension and sell them for her while she continued to make them back in Ponyville. Not even Sugar Cube Corner was selling its products outside of Ponyville. This could be the break she needed!

A small spot outside a two story green painted building caught her eye. It had a sigh hanging from the front of the building with a giant picture of a juicy red apple. Since apples were so commonly sought after, it was likely that this was a busy place of business. Bon Bon managed to get ahold of a table, which she set up outside the store. On top of it she placed a few boxes of her chocolate candies, trying to keep them shaded as best she could so that they wouldn't melt.

In no time, she was attracting a significant amount of attention from the crowd in the center of town. Less than an hour had passed and she made several hundred bits, and completely sold all of the samples she had brought with her. All there was to do now was to wait for the show to begin and give Lyra her utmost support.

A few hours later; the sun was in the final quarter of the sky. Ponies had left their homes and encampments around the town and gathered in front of the small stage. Lyra's harp was sitting on the wooden platform, waiting for its strings to be plucked with skill. Bon Bon was towards the center of the crowd where she looked around for her musically talented friend who was still no where to be seen. Which wasn't very unusual to the tan earth pony. Even though Lyra was a performer, and had done this many times before, she still wasn't a fan of crowds.

On cue, at the last possible second, Lyra emerged from behind the train station. She crossed the tracks and stepped up to the stage to the applause of the crowd of ponies. She sat on a small stool next to the harp, situating herself accordingly. Giving one last look to the crowd, she saw Bon Bon eagerly waving from the middle. Lyra responded with a sheepish smile, trying to hide behind her bangs and returning a small wave. She took a deep breath while turning her attention back to the harp between her hooves. Giving it a few testing plucks emanated the sound she wanted to hear, telling her that it was ready.

Lyra began manipulating the strings in her hooves. Notes seemed to naturally float through the air, soothing the ears of the ponies in the crowds. Each string gave its own pitch and frequency, varying by the string's length, gauge and where on the string it was plucked. She sat in her seat with her eyes closed lightly, focusing on the memory of the musical piece she had played hundreds, if not thousands, of times before.

Several minutes of this went by. At the end of her first piece, the crowd was thoroughly transfixed on her; the part of the performance that Lyra didn't like. She tried to stay behind her mane and concentrate on the music, not the ponies watching her every movement with zealous attention. A cold chill ran up her spine, sending her out of her meditative state. Ignoring it, Lyra pressed on with the performance.

In the crowd, Bon Bon easily spotted the subtle change in her best friend. Looking around, everypony else was to busy listening to the music ad watching her hooves move to notice. Wandering what happened, Bon Bon moved forward, pushing her way past a few ponies. She stopped in her tracks when something touched her hoof that was numbingly cold, a stark contrast to the warm desert sand. Bon Bon glanced down. At first she thought it was a snake that was slithering across her hoof, but it didn't have the same texture that a snake would have, nor the same eyes. In fact, it didn't have any eyes in the first place.

What the...?

She traced the black tendril that crossed under the legs of the ponies next to her as far as she could, even going as far as to bend down to get a better view. The thing criss crossed along the sand beneath the crowd, disappearing into a small alley way. Bon Bon pushed her way through the crowd. On the other side of the alley, between two buildings, several wisps of dark fog floated by. She felt the air cool around her; the sun had been blocked by something.

Bon Bon looked up. Low hanging black clouds had choked out the sun like a thick fog. Lyra's blissful music came to a crawl as she too felt the sudden chill. She, along with everypony else, were snapped out of their trance. They each instinctively looked up towards where the sun should have been. An eerie silence fell over the entire town. Something possessed Lyra to look down the main street leading away from the station through the center of town, behind the crowd. A silent streak of cobalt blue lightning crossed its black surface.

Somepony in the back of the crowd let out a terrifying screech. All eyes turned in the direction of the sound. A mare was being dragged across the ground, a pair of those same black tendrils that Bon Bon had seen were wrapped around her legs, pulling her across the sand. The leading edge of the fog was only a few yards away. When the innocent mare was dragged past the threshold, she completely disappeared from view, her screams silenced. For a moment, everything stopped. Everypony looked on in horror at the spot where the mare had just been pulled into the still approaching fog.

It was a moment that didn't last long.

Dozens of the same black tendrils that had snatched that mare shot out from the black fog, sliding along the ground. Everypony scattered like cockroaches, screaming in terror. More tendrils slid out of the alleys and over the tops and along the sides of buildings. There was no where to go; the town was nearly surrounded. A stallion on the left side of the stage was snatched next. Lyra turned just in time to see him pulled into the storm. It gave her a perfect view of the tendrils that were sliding across the stage towards her.

"Lyra!" The mare whose name had been called looked at Bon Bon, who was standing in the center of the panicking crowd, waving a hoof to get her friend's attention. "Lyra! Over here! Quickly!"

Seeing no need to dilly-dally, Lyra jumped off the stage just as the tendrils reached out for her, missing.

"What's going on?" Lyra hastily asked once arriving next to her tan friend.

"I don't know but we need to get out of here!"

There was another loud scream next to the mares. They both looked to see a mare being pulled along the ground by her legs. She was pleading with the stallion that was holding onto her arms to not let go, but he too was being dragged with her. He reached out with one arm and grabbed onto a cart that was loaded down with heavy rocks. For a moment it seemed to work; he and the mare stopped. The tendrils that had grabbed hold of the mare seemed to stop for a moment before beginning to pull even harder. The stallion's grip on the cart slipped, and he, and the mare, were quickly pulled into the storm, their screams silenced.

Lyra fell to the ground with something wrapped around one of her legs. She managed to roll onto her back to see that it was a tendril, blue streaks of electricity running across its cloudy surface.

"Bon Bon!" she cried.

The earth pony suddenly appeared in Lyra's field of vision, a shovel in hoof. She viciously smacked and stabbed at the tendril, grunting with the force of each blow. The blue streaks along the tendril shone brightly as the appendage flinched from the impacts of the shovel. A loud series of high pitched chirps and rumbles were emitted from the storm itself, apparent screams from the clouds. The black tentacle let go of Lyra's leg, quickly retreating back into the storm. Bon Bon quickly helped friend stagger to their hooves.

"Let's get out of here!" Lyra panted. Apparently everypony else shared their testament as they sought out any cover they could. Ponies were rushing through the doors of nearby buildings, locking themselves inside.

Lyra and Bon Bon rapped on the doors, trying to gain entry to the shelters. But at each building, they were pushed back outside, with sincere apologies from the occupiers inside, who said that there simply wasn't enough room. The two mares stood in the center of the now nearly deserted street, looking for someplace to hide. Only a few ponies were left outside other than themselves, and in the mean time a few more had been taken by the still approaching storm, which had now nearly completely engulfed the town. The only place that it hadn't yet consumed was the train station.

Together, they sprinted for it, leaping across the tracks, up onto the platform, and through the door into the main reception room. Bon Bon quickly found a small, doorless room that she pulled Lyra in to hide inside of. The two friends squeezed themselves behind a desk, holding one another in their embrace, hoping... no, praying... that the storm didn't find them. For a moment, Lyra could see blue sky out one of the windows that faced away from the direction the storm had come from. But soon, that too was consumed by blackness. Frost began to form on the windows, and the ponies' breaths became visible as the temperature suddenly dropped.

A chill ran down Lyra's back, but not from the temperature. It was from a sudden realization.

"Bon Bon...?" she began hesitantly.

"Yeah?" Bon Bon's voice was quivering just as much as her mouth was.

"Did you shut the door behind us when we ran inside?"

Now it was Bon Bon's turn to have a chill run down her back. In the rush to seek shelter, she didn't close the door behind them as they ran into the deserted train station. Neither one of them knew what this meant, but they were both too afraid to find out. In a few minutes, they got their answer.

It first came in the form of a lower series of chirps, followed by a quiet howling sound. Both of their eyes were fixated on the open doorway in front of them. A few dark wisps cross through the doorway, appearing to harmlessly float about. Unfortunately for Lyra and Bon Bon, they were merely the precursors of what was to come. Soon, several of the black tendrils found their way inside the small room. They stopped midway through the doorway, seemingly to smell the air and look around the room. Then they continued towards the cornered mares.

"Lyra, do something!"

"I... I don't know what I can do..."

"You're a unicorn! Can't you use like... battle magic... or something... on it?"

"I'm not a guard! I only know simple levitation spells and things to help me with my music! That's it!"

"Well do something!"

Lyra took a deep breath and stood up. She focused, applying magic to her horn with the intention of at least grabbing hold of the tendrils and getting rid of them. Somehow. But when her light green colored aura wrapped itself around the tendrils, the streaks of blue electricity lit up. But instead of signaling the tendrils' retreat like it had last time, they were apparently building up a static charge. Before Lyra could react, blue streaks of electricity wrapped around the aura that was around the tendrils, then jumped to the tip of her horn, zapping her. In the midst of a loud popping sound, she was propelled into the wall behind her.

She rubbed her head and opened her eyes. Her hearing was dominated by a high pitched ringing that drowned out all other sounds, including those of Bon Bon's screams. The tendrils had wrapped themselves around the earth pony's legs and were dragging her back through the door way. Lyra's felt like her head was spinning, otherwise she would have helped her friend. She did try to get up, but immediately felt nauseous and fell back down to her knees.

When Lyra got back on her hooves, she saw that Bon Bon was gone. She stumbled out of the room, bracing herself up against the doorframe to make sure that she didn't fall down again. To the side she caught a glimpse of Bon Bon's arms just before they disappeared around the corner. Again Lyra chased after her friend, stumbling over her own hooves, and still with the ringing in her ears.

"Bon Bon!" Lyra called out. She wasn't sure if she actually said anything, she could even hear her own voice over the incessant ringing.

Lyra tripped a over a slightly elevated wooden board that was protruding from the floor. She rolled head over hooves a few times before coming to a stop on her back. Turning her head to the side brought the main doorway into the train station into her field of vision. Through it, Lyra saw Bon Bon clawing and scratching at the wooden plank floor, trying to find something to hold onto as the storm continued to drag her away.

"Lyra!" Bon Bon's voice was barely audible as the unicorn's hearing slowly returned to her, though the ringing was still relatively prominent. Hearing her friend's voice gave Lyra the ability to climb back to her hooves. She wobbled her way towards the door, towards Bon Bon's cries for help.

She felt like all of the energy had been sapped out of her. Under any other circumstance it was likely that she wouldn't even be able to stand feeling like this, much less try to run. Though when she got to the doorway, she finally reached the point where she couldn't continue. Lyra fell down, part of her leaning up against the door frame. She tried to keep her head up as much as she could, watching helplessly as Bon Bon was dragged away.

Lyra casted a spell, hoping to grab onto Bon Bon and pull her away from the storm. All that she ended up creating were sparks that sputtered out of the tip of her horn. As Bon Bon disappeared into the storm, Lyra's vision faded to black.

Lyra broke down, crying into her hooves. Minuette rubbed her back caringly, trying to sooth her friend.

"I'm sorry!" she wailed.

"It's alright, Miss Heartstrings," Phantom said, setting his pin down on his small notebook. He had already gone through several pages worth, nearly filling the small pad up completely. "We can take a break."

"But it's my fault that she's gone!" Lyra looked up at Phantom, a tear leaking from her eye. "I couldn't help her then... I failed her... I failed her and now she's gone."

"Don't say that, Lyra," Minuette said, putting herself in Lyra's field of vision. "You did everything you could have. It's not your fault."

"Minuette's right," Phantom agreed. "The things you faced were unlike anything anypony has ever seen before, and you survived, even while attempting to fight back and save Bon Bon. You're lucky that it didn't take you."

"Lucky..." Lyra sighed. "I'm lucky? Bon Bon is out there! Somewhere! Alone! Alone and it's all my fault. I tried to help her, but couldn't... Now I'm going to help get her back in anyway I can."

"A break sounds like a good idea. There's no use in trying to push yourself too far by recreating a traumatic event. Just rest for a minute, you'll feel better."

"I'll get you some more tea," Minuette said, picking up Lyra's empty glass and heading back to the kitchen. Phantom took a sip from his own cup, simultaneously reexamining the notes he had already written down while he waited for Minuette's return.

"Have you been a guard for very long?" Lyra looked over at Phantom, watching him as he reread his notes.

"I'll be starting my fifth year this coming Winter Wrap-Up."

"Handle many cases?"

"Loads."

"Anything like this?"

Phantom paused. "No, not quite like this. As far as investigating goes, I normally work on break-ins, corruption, ponynapping, things like that."

"So if you haven't done anything on this level, why did Princess Celestia send you? Why didn't she just send the Elements of Harmony?"

"Last I had heard they were busy wrapping up the Equestrian Games in the Crystal Empire. It would also appear that she doesn't want to send them down here with absolutely no information, thus the reason I'm here."

Minuette returned with a fresh compliment of tea. She set the steaming cup in front of Lyra before sitting back down beside her friend. Lyra waited a moment before taking a sip of the sweet drink.

"So what happens now?" Minuette asked Phantom.

"Well, if Lyra feels like she's up to it, I'd like to get a little bit more information on the storm."

"I am," Lyra said. "Anything if it helps to find Bon Bon."

Phantom nodded. "Alright. You said you passed out; so tell me, what happened after you woke up? Was the storm gone? How did the other ponies who made it through act afterwards? Was there any damage? Things like that..."

"Ma'am," a voice called. "Ma'am, are you alright?"

Lyra's eyes fluttered open. The sun was at its peak in the sky, illuminating the desert around her. Everything seemed normal for the most part; nothing appeared to be broken. But their also seemed to be less ponies out and about than normal. Above her stood a gray coated unicorn with a black mane. He extended a hoof down to Lyra to help her up, much to her thanks.

"Yeah," she replied, "Yeah I'll be fine. My head may not, though..." She put a hoof up to her aching head in an attempt to quell the pain. Lyra's eyes went wide, ad her jaw dropped open, allowing her to take in a large gulp of air. "Bon Bon!" She turned towards the stallion and put her hands on his shoulders. "That storm took her! We have to find out where she went!"

"Ma'am, look around. We've all lost somepony." Lyra followed where he was pointing with his hoof. The few ponies who were out and about were walking around slowly and in a daze. It looked like the only damage that was done was to the ponies themselves; the town looked completely normal. Everypony had a thousand yard stare in their eyes. "Initial count puts it at ten missing ponies, but we fear that there are more that we have discovered yet."

"What happened, anyway?"

"The Storm has returned," spoke a new voice. The two ponies turned around to see a frail-looking, pale coated pegasus mare behind them, leaning forward on a cane in the train station's doorway. Her short mane and tail were snow white, making her sapphire blue eyes pop out that much more. On her flank, sat a cutie mark depicting a purple ball of yarn.

"What storm is that?" the stallion asked. "I've never heard of storms doing anything like this one."

"Caligo, as the Buffalo call it, isn't like other storms. Not even the Everfree Forest produces anything like it."

"So what does, then?"

"The Badlands."

There was a moment of silence as Lyra finished her story. After she had talked to the elderly mare, she said that she boarded the first train that came into town, wanting to get out of there no matter the direction it went. That's how she ended up in Appleloosa, and not her home town of Ponyville.

Phantom took a big breath and stretch in his chair, popping his back against the rest of the chair. He closed his small notebook, putting it, and his pin, back in the chest pockets of his tan vest. Picking up the cup of tea in his hoof, Phantom finished off the drink before setting it back down on the table.

"So do you have all the information you need?" MInuette asked.

"Yeah," Phantom nodded his head. "This information will help a lot. Thank you, Lyra." There was a pause. "If you two'll excuse me, I have to go update Princess Celestia on what's going on, and that I'm here." He stood up, put his tan boonie hat back on, and began walking towards the door. Lyra remained in her seat, blankly staring down at her now half empty cup of tea. Minuette stayed at her side, trying to comfort her.

Stepping through the door, Phantom stood under the awning and performed a long, high pitched whistle. At first nothing happened. Then, a creature not native to the desert cast its shadow on the sandy road. In a few seconds, the winded being swooped in in front of Phantom to make its appearance. It was a bird, a little larger than an eagle, with very distinctive and bright red and orange feathers. The phoenix looked up at the midnight blue pegasus, waiting.

Phantom took out a piece of quill and pin, placing them on the ground as he started to write.

"Philomena," he said, still writing, "take this to Princess Celestia. It details everything I've learned thus far, tells her where I am, where I'm staying, and where I'm going tomorrow. Tell her I await her reply."

Philomena nodded as Phantom carefully placed the rolled up parchment in her beak. The phoenix spread her wings and took flight, tailing fire as she flew towards the sun. Performing a tight barrel roll, tucking her wings in, Philomena disappeared in a flash of fire.

"So what now?" MInuette asked, coming up behind Phantom from inside. She stood by his side, looking up into the part of the sky that the phoenix had disappeared in.

"Tomorrow I'm going to Dodge Junction to find out what that ponies knows about this... Caligo..."

Author's Note:

Don't panic... okay, panic. There's a chance that this might be the last chapter posted. I'll try to get more out... but there's no guarantees. Thursday, I turn in my school laptop, and thus lose my main tool for writing. Hang in there guys, I'll try to stay with ya.

Hopefully this won't be the last time I do this;
Coming up next: The Caligo myth returns from a deep slumber.

Comments

[FireLorax]

Ahhh!!!, I can't wait for the next chapter! Keep up the good work :D I love how its going so far! (now I just have to wait for the next chapter, so I can get excited again)

[Tempestus]

Hmm, an interesting development. I really want to see where this goes. As far as I know no one has really done anything with the Buffalo.