Broken Feathers: Desert Storm

by That Avi Nerd

Caligo

The hinges of the trap door at the top of the clock tower creaked as the door was magically opened. From the stairwell under it climbed Minuette, stepping hoof into the bell room of the clock tower. She looked around and saw no sign of the midnight blue pegasus who had gone up there to sleep the night before. To her side was his vest and hat, placed neatly on top of the rest of the stuff he had brought up there. He should be up by now, she thought, still looking around for any sign of him. I told him I had to start the bells at six... Outside, the sun was just barely poking over the horizon, its dim light softly illuminating the steeple through the heavily frosted glass.

In front of her, a midnight blue feather caught her eye. It was floating down softly in the dusty haze of the clock tower, nearly suspended in the air. Minuette looked up, moving off to the side so that the large bell didn't obstruct her view from what was above it. Near the top of the tower, Phantom laid on the cross beam that held up the bell itself, his left arm and left leg hanging off of the edge, swinging back and forth softly. His right wing hung limp over the edge in a relaxed manner. Though Minuette couldn't see his face, the stallion was too busy burring his muzzle into his left wing and pulling out the broken feathers, and aligning the rest.

"Hey!" Minuette shouted up to him. Apparently Phantom hadn't heard her enter the steeple. The pegasus was visibly startled, jumping to an attentive state in his spot. With a single flap of his wings, Phantom was brought to a standing position on the beam, bending at the arms slightly as if he were about to pounce. Once he looked down to see who had shouted did he relax. Opening his wings, Phantom glided down to the wooden floor and landed next to Minuette. "On edge much?" she raised an eyebrow.

"It's not a good idea to sneak up on me," Phantom replied, his voice still slightly groggy from just waking up.

"Why were you even up there in the first place?"

"I was preening," he deadpanned. "Pegasi are vulnerable when we're preening, so we subconsciously put ourselves in positions where threats can only come from a few directions. Natural selection and what-not." Phantom yawned away his sleepiness. Minuette maintained her expression. "You don't have very many pegasus friends, do you?"

"No."

"Thought not."

"Have you heard anything back from Princess Celestia?"

Phantom shook his head. "I was actually on my way to go check now."

"Well you had better hurry, the bells are about to start and trust me when I say you do not want to be up here when they go off. The mechanism that controls the clocks may be quiet, but the bells aren't."

"Duly noted." Phantom led the way towards the trap door, allowing Minuette to go down it first. Remembering his vest and hat, Phantom went to put those on before rejoining the mare in the stair well. "Lyra still here?" he asked, hovering next to the mare as she descended the wooden supports.

Minuette nodded. "I offered her my bed for the night while I slept on the couch. She's a fair ways from home; I don't want her making the trip back on her own."

"I'm not going back," said Lyra's voice. Phantom and Minuette looked down from their position about halfway up the clock tower towards the mint unicorn below them. At some point she had stepped through the door during their conversation.

Minuette ran down the rest of the stairs while Phantom glided down to Lyra's side.

"What do you mean, 'You're not going back,'?" Minuette demanded.

"Just that." Lyra adjusted herself so that she was standing up taller in defiance. "I'm not going back to Ponyville, not without Bon Bon at my side."

"Lyra..." Minuette sighed.

"No, Minuette. I lost her, and I'm not going to leave her behind."

"So what," Phantom began, "you're just going to stay here until we find her? And that's even if we find her."

"I'm not staying here, either..."

"Oh please don't say you're—"

"I'm going with you."

"Yeah... No." Phantom walked past Lyra, through the door and into the lobby of the building.

"No? What they hay do you mean by 'No,'?"

Lyra left the clock tower, following after Phantom with Minuette behind her. The three ponies were grouped together in the lobby of the building, where Phantom was walking towards the door. He was the first to step out side into the rising desert sun, still failing to answer Lyra's question.

"I mean, 'No,'. You are not going with me. It's too much of a risk."

"Oh come on, Phantom," Minuette said as she and Lyra followed the pegasus outside. Phantom stopped at the top of the steps and sighed, waiting for the blue unicorn to continue. "It's not like you're going to go after the storm. You're just going over to Dodge Junction to meet with somepony to find out more information about this storm. Nothing's going to happen."

Phantom craned his neck around to look at the two mares. "Trouble has a way of finding me... Last time somepony I worked with said 'nothing is going to happen', we were both very nearly killed. The answer is: No. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to check to see if Princess Celestia has gotten back to me yet, and I have a train to catch."

On cue, the sound of a distant whistle pierced the silent air, signalling the approaching train. Phantom spread his wings. Giving them a powerful flap, he rose into the air and circled the clock tower, landing on top of the steeple where he was to await word from a certain phoenix.

On top of the tower, attached to a wind indicator that showed the cardinal directions and depicted a flying pegasus that pointed towards where the wind was going, Phantom discovered a royally sealed piece of parchment carefully tied to the base rod. Phantom pulled on one of the strings on the small bow, releasing the knot and allowing the parchment to be freed. He caught the scroll before it could be blown away by the wind. Unraveling it in his hooves, the pegasus read the letter.

It started out by thanking him for volunteering for the assignment, and for putting up with the long train ride to get there. Going on, it stated that awareness of the 'Caligo' phenomenon was finally starting to spread throughout Equestria, particularly in the areas around Ponyville and Las Pegasus, since those were the two major non-dessert settlements that were closest to the affected region. Although word hadn't fully captured the attention of the media yet, which was noted in the letter as 'odd', mention was made of the recent Caligo incident in Dodge Junction, with seventeen ponies confirmed missing thus far. Phantom was instructed by the contents of the letter to carry out his plans and to proceed to Dodge Junction, asking around and finding out what he could about Caligo. At the bottom was a footnote from Captain Armor, requesting that Lyra be sent to him so that he and the Royal Sisters could ask her their own line of questions, and so that she'd be safe. Below that, it was signed by Princess Celestia.

"Get down from there before you hurt yourself!" Minuette called up to the pegasus.

"Yes, mother," Phantom signed loudly enough so that the blue unicorn could hear him. Rolling the parchment back up, he unfurled his wings and floated to the sandy streets below.

"What's the verdict?" Lyra asked, stepping up beside Phantom once he had tucked his wings back in.

"You two are going to Canterlot to see Shining Armor. He, and the Princess, would like to ask Lyra similar questions as I did."

"While you go to Dodge Junction?" Minuette protested. "No way!"

"What if you're in Dodge Junction with me and another of these storms hits for the third time? I can't put you two in danger like that."

"What if a storm hits Appleloosa for the first time? We'll be in danger anyway! Answer me that, Mister Royal Guard!"

"You won't be in any danger because you'll be over twenty hours away in Canterlot. Surrounded by the best weather teams in all of Equestria. This storm won't get anywhere near you."

Phantom and Minuette were by now muzzle to muzzle, glaring into one anther's eyes. Sparks of electricity seemed to zap between their foreheads before Lyra decided to intervene.

"Enough!" she yelled, pushing the two ponies apart with her hooves. "Fine, we'll go to Canterlot, alright? Just... Find Bon Bon, please?"

"I'll try my best," Phantom replied, turning and heading towards the train.

Lyra and Minuette stood side by side and watched as the pegasus walked towards the station. Once he was out of earshot, Minuette turned towards her friend.

"We're not actually going to Canterlot, are we?" Minuette asked with resignation.

"Nope," Lyra deadpanned, turning to walk back towards the clock tower to grab what things she had there.

"Minuette sighed, bower her head heavily. "... I Thought not..."

Phantom spent most of the train ride resting his eyes. Since it was a relatively short trip, there wasn't any catering. And due to recent events, not very many ponies were on the train, let alone the car he was in; he had it all to himself. With no pony to talk to, nothing to read, eat, drink, and no beds to rest in, he leaned his head against the window and allowed his mind to wonder. Occasionally he'd open his eyes and look out at the passing desert. But with little to see other than sand, interest quickly died, and he drifted off into a resting state.

He was only fully brought out of his doze by the change in timing between the clicks of the car's wheels passing over joints in the tracks. It telegraphed to Phantom that they were slowing down; they were approaching Dodge Junction.

In a few minutes the train had pulled into the station of the quaint settlement. Phantom slid out from his booth seat, standing up in the aisle of the empty car, stretching out the stiffness in his legs and wings. The ticket master for the train came by before long to open the door to allow Phantom his leave, and to let anypony, if there were any, board.

"Not very many passengers here, either," the ticket master said as she and Phantom stepped off the car together. There were only a hoof-full of ponies waiting to board.

"Can't really blame them," Phantom replied, looking around. "If I were them, I'd get the hat out of here before anything else happened."

"So why aren't you one of them?"

Phantom took his tan hat out of a pouch on his vest and put it on, shielding him partly from the afternoon sun's rays.

"Because I"m trying to stop it."

"Pfft, good luck. This thing appears to be unstoppable. How do you even beat a storm?"

"By being stubborn." With his parting words said, Phantom let the ticketer return to her duties.

His first task was to locate the Sheriff, who would be the prominent figure in a settlement of this size. Not knowing specifically where the authoritative pony's office would be, Phantom took off trotting through the center of town, looking from building to building. The town streets appeared to be nearly deserted, with the only pedestrians being ponies who were zipping from building to building. Several times Phantom caught ponies staring at him through windows. Some of them looked confused, some scared, others were smiling and seemed hopeful at his presence while others had looks of awe. Phantom stopped in the middle of the street, feeling everypony's eyes on him.

"Hello?" a voice whispered from the shadows. Phantom's ears perked up and his head turned to face an alley to his right.

Phantom took a hesitant step towards the alley, adjusting his head so that he could see better. Quickly his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he could see the smaller face of some teen-aged filly poking out from behind a dumpster.

"Who are you?" she asked again with a hushed voice, taking another step out from behind her cover.

"Phantom Knight," Phantom replied with a calm tone. "I'm a Staff Sergeant with the Royal Guard. You?"

"I'm Quill, I help out at the general store here." As the conversation was drawn on, Quill was slowly moving towards the light outside the alley. "Why are you here?"

"I came to find out what happened in this town; about the storm." On mention of the infamous storm, Quill quickly retreated back behind the dumpster with a startled yelp. "Why are you hiding back here, if you don't mind me asking?"

"This is where I hid when the clouds came. If I leave... they... they might find me."

"Don't you have anypony you can stay with? Parents?"

Phantom could see her shaking her head in the shadows. "They were taken by the storm." Quill once again stepped out from behind the dumpster, advancing towards the pegasus. In the darkness, it was difficult for Phantom to discern any features about her other than her green eyes.

"Well, the storm isn't here right now, so you're safe. Do you want to come out into the light so that it's not so dark?"

"No!" Quill took a step back. "I-I mean... If I go into the light, the storm will see me."

"It isn't here, Quill. Besides, if it were, I'd personally make sure that it didn't get anywhere near you."

"Really?"

"Really really."

"Well, okay..." Step by careful step, Quill slowly emerged from the shadows of the alley. The first thing Phantom saw was her head, full of brown hair from her mane. Her coat was a soft orange. Further advancement into the light revealed a quill and some ink for a cutie mark. In all, the teen-aged mare, an earth pony, was a little less than half of Phantom's size. She should be in school, Phantom thought, not in an alley like this. Another feature that he noted was her seemingly malnourished condition. He could just begin to see her ribs poking through her coat.

"Have you been out here with nothing to eat this entire time?" Phantom asked her.

She stopped in front of him. "Since the storm took my parents, yeah..."

"Well then... How do you feel about a doctor's visit, eh? To get checked out and make sure you're okay?"

"That'd be okay, I guess..."

"You guys still have a doctor, right?"

"We should. I saw her walk by this morning."

"Okay, that's good. Can you tell me where her office is?"

"Yeah, she's just up the road, outside of town."

"Alrighty then, let's go pay her a visit." Phantom turned so that his right half faced Quill, then lowered that side of his body and extended his right wing towards the ground like a ramp. "Wanna lift?"

A smile instantly formed on Quill's face as she perked up, her tail swaying back and forth.

"Are you sure it's okay?" she asked, taking a few hesitant steps towards him.

"I've carried ponies twice your size. Trust me, you won't be a problem. C'mon! It'll be fun!"

Quill ran forwards a few steps and jumped. Phantom adjusted himself accordingly so that she landed square on his back, with the same orientation as he.

"Wrap your arms around my neck," Phantom explained, "and hold on tightly!"

He extended his wings, giving them several powerful flaps and taking off into the air. The pegasus ascended rapidly high into the skies, much to the elated screams of the filly on his back.

"This is awesome!" he could hear her scream over the rushing wind.

Phantom slowed his speed and leveled off. When he craned his neck to see how Quill was doing, he saw that she was staring down at the ground. Several hundred feet below, Dodge Junction appeared even smaller than it had on the ground. A pony could easily fit the entire settlement into their vision from this altitude. If it were a town like Ponyville, they wouldn't.

"So which one is her office?" Phantom asked in a normal voice, noting having to yell over the rushing wind of high speed flying.

"Umm..." Quill looked down at the cluster of buildings, attempting to pick out the right one. "That one! I think." She was pointing towards a lone building separated from the rest of town on the north side.

"Hang on!"

"For wha—aahhh!"

Midway through her sentence, Phantom had tucked his wings in, allowing gravity to take over and pull him and Quill back down towards the ground at an ever accelerating speed. Before reaching the same level as the roofs of the buildings, Phantom snapped his wings open. He pulled up hard enough that Quill and he didn't crash into the ground, but at the same time soft enough so that the G-Forces didn't crush her.

The pegasus was zipping just a few feet above the ground, kicking up dirt and sand as he went. Quickly flying through the center of town, Phantom began slowing himself by banking slightly to one side so that his wings brushed up against the sand, then again to the other side. This increased his drag, and thus slowed his speed. Not too far from the office, Phantom flared his wings so that they were perpendicular to the ground, and lowered his legs, readying himself for a landing. Hooves on the ground, Phantom started by galloping, folding his wings in. He slowly brought himself to a trot, then a calm walk with only a few yards left to the door of the doctor's fofice.

"That was so cool!" Quill explaimed, sliding off of Phantom's back and landing on the sand. "A pegasus has never took my flying before. And it wasn't nearly as hot up there as it is down here. I actually started to get cold up there! How can you stand it?"

"With these," Phantom said, smiling and showing off his feathery wings. He brought them back into a resting position and approached the door, rapping on it sharply.

"Coming!" a mare's voice called from inside. A few patient moments later saw the front door opening, revealing a white unicorn mare with a red mane standing in the door way. On her flank, she had a big read heart as a cutie mark.

"Doctor Heartstrong!" Quill cheered, running forward and grappling the unicorn around the arms.

"Quill?" Doctor Heartstrong asked, looking down at the filly with wide eyes. "Sweet Celestia, what's happened to you? You're so thin!"

"I haven't exactly been eating very much..." Quill released her grip on the mare, suddenly finding interest on the ground below her.

"Well I can see that! But why?" Doctor Heartstrong seemingly just now noticed that Phantom was standing in front of her. Her eyes were drawn towards the Equestrian insignia on the front of his vest, along with his ranking chevrons. "Oh no, did something happen?"

"Is there someplace inside where we can talk?" Phantom asked.

"Why of course, right this way." Doctor Heartstrong left the door open and retreated back into the building, allowing quill to follow close behind. Phantom was the last inside, closing the door behind him.

He found himself in a reception room that had two small couches and a coffee table with a few magazines on top of it. Several posters were hung up along the walls, informing anypony who looked at them of various health facts, signs of sickness, etcetras. A smell of alcohol hung in the warm, musty air. The silence was broken routinely every second by the lone clock that hung on the far wall. A large rectangular hole was cut into one of the walls, serving as a secretary's window. Next to it, a door separated the lobby and what Phantom guessed was the examination rooms.

"I found her hiding in an alley," Phantom explained. He took off his tan hat and followed Doctor Heartstrong through the door next to the secretary's window. Quill was walking at her side. "She said she's been there since the storm struck."

"That's so terrible! Quill, where are your parents?" Doctor Heartstrong opened a door in the hallway, a label on it read 'Pediatrics'

It was a simple examination room, with a bed on one side, a scale, some chairs on the other side, cabinets filled with medical supplies, and toys strewn across the ground. Doctor Heartstrong used her magic to levitate some paper and quill and ink off a nearby counter and hand them to the filly, who had now jumped atop the bed, sitting down comfortably.

"The storm took them away..." Quill sighed, taking the paper and beginning to write something.

"Oh my..."

"You didn't know?" Phantom asked.

"I had a guess," Doctor Heartstrong said, using her magic to place a stethoscope around her neck. "I'm good friends with her parents, so we see each other a lot. When I didn't see them, or her, for awhile after the storm, I feared the worst. I just assumed that the storm got her along with her parents. I had no idea she was left behind... Quill, I am so, so sorry. If I had known—"

"It's okay, Miss Heartstrong," Quill interrupted the doctor, "I know you would have helped."

Doctor Heartstrong nodded, putting the stethoscope in her ears and pressing the device against Quill's chest, listening to the filly's heartbeat. After a few minutes, she stopped, putting the stethoscope back around her neck.

"She'll be fine," Doctor Heartstrong said with a smile. I'll get her something to eat here in a bit. Thank you for bringing her to me, Mister..."

"Oh, sorry," Phantom apologized, snapping his wondering attention back onto the unicorn. "Knight, ma'am, Phantom Knight. I'm a Staff Sergeant with the Royal Guard, sent here to investigate these storms."

"Well if you need anything, Mister Knight, just ask."

Phantom nodded. "Where can I find the Sheriff?"

Doctor Heartstrong sighed. "The storm took him on the first attack. It took all of my medical staff this last time..."

"Sorry to hear that. So who would be the prominent figure in this town?"

She thought for a moment. "I guess I would be? We're too small for a local government, so the Sheriff filled in. I certainly wouldn't think it would be the general store manager, or the bar tender. Hadn't really thought about it."

"Hmm... Do you know of any pony who would know a lot about these storms? Where the came from? How they seem to find these towns on their own? Things like that?"

"No, I don't think so... wait! Yeah, I know somepony. There's this old pegasus that I see from time to time. She lives by an oasis a few miles from town. Before the storms started, she came into town and warned everypony, but nopony listened. She sounded like she knew what she was talking about. Had this weird name for them..."

"Caligo?"

"That's it! From what I know about her, she was a worked in the old Cloudsdale factories."

"Thanks, that's a big help."

"Do you think you'll be able to find everypony? Save them?"

Phantom sighed. "I'll try my best."

"Well, for the sake of ponies like Quill here," she rubbed the filly's head with a hoof, "I hope so."

"Me too." Phantom looked at the clock on the wall. It was a quarter past two. "I best be going."

"Alright. Again, thanks for bringing Quill to me."

"No problem." Phantom turned and made his way out the door. In the hall way, he stopped and turned around, poking his head back through. "What'll happen to Quill, now?"

"She'll stay with me, probably. Not like there's any where else for her to go. Don't worry, she'll be fine."

"Alright, just wanted to be sure."

"See ya, Phantom!" Quill waved as the pegasus left for the second time. Before he reentered the lobby, he heard her tell Doctor Heartstrong, "You should have seen it! I got to ride on his back and he took me flying through the sky! I was just like a pegasus!"

Phantom smiled to himself, walking through the lobby of the office. Putting his tan hat back on, he stepped through the door of the relatively cool office and into the blistering desert sun.

"You'd make a good dad," a mare's voice said, catching him off guard. "Anypony ever tell you that?"

"Or a foal sitter, in the least" came another's.

Phantom jumped in his coat, all of his senses being brought to their full alertness. His wings instinctively flared out as Phantom brought himself to a quick hover above the building. In a stance that was drilled into muscle memory while at Royal Guard training, Phantom scanned the area for attackers. Instead of finding threats, he instead found two mares below him. Both were unicorns, one was mint green, and the other a soft blue.

"You've gotta be kidding me..." Phantom deadpanned, lowering himself for a soft vertices landing.

"Jumpy, much?" Lyra asked as Phantom landed, tucking his wings in.

Phantom looked at Lyra with a nonplussed expression before directing his attention to Minuette. "I thought I told you both to go to Canterlot."

"You did..." Minuette rubbed one hoof against the front of another. "We came here instead..."

"Speaking of which, how, and why, are you two here?"

"We snuck onto the train and followed you here."

"I'm not going anywhere without Bon Bon," Lyra said defiantly.

Realizing that there was no getting rid of the two mares, Phantom sighed. "Fine... you can come with me." Both Lyra and Minuette smiled, hoofbumping one another. "But, you have to follow my lead, and obey my orders, got it? Any sign of danger and you two are getting out before it can get to you. Deal?"

"Yup!" Minuette cheered.

"So where are we going first, Phantom?" Lyra asked, circling around to the other side of the pegasus.

"To find the mare you talked to earlier."

The next several hours found the ponies in the desert several miles north of Dodge Junction. The waning afternoon sun scorched the sand with its intense light.

"It's so hot!" Minuette groaned.

"Do you need another sip from my canteen?" Phantom offered from the front of the line.

Minuette approached from her position in the middle, trotting up beside the pegasus. The trio of ponies stopped as Phantom slid the canteen's strap over his neck, handing it to Minuette, who eagerly grabbed it in her magic and greedily drank from it. Meanwhile, Lyra stood in the back, seemingly unaffected by the heat.

"How do you do it?" Minuette panted, looking over to the mint green unicorn.

"You should really learn a temperature control spell," Lyra said. The unicorn's horn was dimly emitting a soft green light; the source of the faint aura that surrounded her body. Minuette had yet to develop a method for coping with the desert sun, citing that she spent most of her time in doors. Phantom, being a pegasus, was already susceptible to heat. And as a pegasus, he subconsciously let his wings droop into a relaxed state such that the tips of his primary feathers were dragging along the sand, creating their own lines in the dunes. This allowed what little air flow there was to be caught in his feathers, and thus cooling him off. Though he was still hot, he was hydrated, unlike Minuette.

"Thanks," she gasped, having just emptied the last of the water in the canteen.

"You're welcome..." Phantom replied, hesitantly taking the empty container back and sliding it back over his neck and arm so that it hung on the side of his vest. "I could have been there by now without you two, for the record."

"Well shut up," Lyra interrupted. "We're here."

The two other ponies followed to where Lyra's out stretched arm was pointing. About a hundred yards away was a highly appetizing oasis. Complete with a spring and palm trees. Off to the side, a small cabin had been set up. Artifacts transcribed with runes were scattered about.

Phantom was the first to begin walking towards it, with Lyra and Minuette side by side behind him. Going down the slight slope of the dune, the trio made it to the rural structure in no time. There was a spookiness that hung in the air around it, so Phantom was the only one to step hoof on the creaky porch. Just as he raised a hoof to rap on the door, it opened seemingly by itself.

"Hello?" asked a frail voice. Phantom focus his attention on the darkness inside to get a better of idea of who had spoken. A moment later, an old light gray coated pegasus mare stepped out. Even though her white mane seemed devoid of youth, her cobalt eyes did not. "I can tell that you seek something, and that I may have it."

"We do, ma'am," Phantom nodded. "I understand that you know this mare?" He stepped to the side and motioned towards Lyra, who sheepishly waved at the elderly pegasus.

"Ah... Yes, I do. You're the one I talked to after the last attack. What do you three younglings need?"

"Information," Minuette said, stepping up to the porch, "can you tell us about these storms?"

The elderly mare sighed. "There isn't much too tell..." she started limping towards a chair on the other side of the porch. Phantom quickly appeared by her side to help her to it, much to the mare's thanks. "It's been years since one of these Storms have appeared. So long that they disappeared from pony mythology. It is the Buffalo who would know more... They call it Caligo; fog."

"What is it, anyway?" Phantom asked.

"Caligo is a storm unlike any other. It appears to come from somewhere in the Badlands. The clouds are denser than any pony-made cloud and they seem to have their own consciousness. I do not know why, but they're drawn to ponies. Towns are more susceptible to attack than ranches. And no, I do not know why they take ponies in the first place. The Buffalo would have better answers to your questions."

"You wouldn't happen to know where we can find them, do you?"

She shook her head. "They wonder around the desert, not taking specific paths, staying in the same places at the same time of year. Usually, at least. There is, however, one place that I know of that they go to. But it is deep in the canyon, in the center of the Badlands. I do not know why they go there, just that they should be on their way there now. If you can find them, they should be able to tell you more..." The elderly mare stopped at the end of her sentence, her attention turning elsewhere from the ponies in front of her. She looked around with perked ears, seemingly sniffing the air.

"Is there something wrong?" Lyra asked.

The elderly pegasus sat in silence for a few more minutes. During that time, Phantom outstretched his wings to see if he could sense anything unusual in the air. Nothing.

"Caligo is returning..." she finally spoke up. "It is not safe for any of us. You must return home, and stay inside. The storm has trouble going through closed doors and windows; it is the only safe place."

"Thanks for the help," Phantom nodded, turning away and heading back down the steps of the porch. "Come on, if we hurry then maybe we can follow it back to where ever it goes."

"No!" Phantom stopped and turned around, facing the elderly mare. "You must return to your home. It is too dangerous to try to follow the storm... Caligo will find you out in the open. Promise me you will go home."

"I can't," Lyra said, putting herself between Phantom and the elderly mare. "That thing has my friend, and I'm going to get her back."

"That is a noble gesture," the mare said, standing and walking back towards her cabin door, "but your friend shall not return. No pony has. And neither will you three, unless you go. Home... Now. It is quickly approaching; there isn't much time."

With her words said, the unknown pegasus stepped through her door, shutting it behind her and leaving the three other ponies alone on her porch. A few awkward seconds passed before somepony did something else.

"So what now?" Minuette asked.

Phantom sighed, "As much as I don't like it, I feel like she knows what she's talking about. I don't know where she got all this knowledge, but we have nothing else to go on. If there truly is another storm coming, then we should heed her warning and go home."

"But Bon Bon!" Lyra interrupted.

"I know. But there's nothing we can do yet. If the storm comes for us, we need to be ready—"

"But!—"

"I will be able to learn more about the storm, and maybe even track which direction it goes in. We'll have a better place to start looking there than if we were roaming around aimlessly through the desert. Got it?"

Lyra sighed. "Fine..."

"Come on," Minuette said. "We'll go home, wait for it to pass, then go get Bon Bon back." She placed a hoof on her friend's back. "Alright?"

Lyra nodded. "Okay. Let's just go then..."

"Very well," Phantom acknowledged them. Turning away, he began to walk along the path back to Dodge Junction.

Minuette and Lyra fell into step beside him. The three ponies made their way up the dune and away from the oasis. At the top they took a brief break to get a view of the area around them, making sure that they were going in the right direction. Not all that difficult considering they could just follow their own tracks in the general direction back. The wind hadn't yet blown them away.

Just as Phantom took a step to continue forward, he froze in his place. Something incredibly cold was slowly running wrapping itself around his right fore-hoof. A thousand possibilities of what it could have been ran through his mind in a few seconds, the most prominent being that it was the storm. Too afraid to do something, the pegasus stood with wide eyes, waiting for it all to end.

Author's Note:

Holy crap it's an update! Yes, that's right, an ACTUAL update! One that you can read and advance in the story! Not some silly blog post!

This chapter kind-of ran a little long than I wanted. The end with the elderly mare didn't quite turn out how I liked, and Quill took a bigger role than I had originally planned. But when I was writing the filly in... I just couldn't help but to fall in love with her. I'll be making definite sure she makes another appearance.

I'm still working on the Caligo mythology, and coming up with back stories for it to help explain it better for if the ponies run into characters who know more about the storms. If you guys have any ideas or inputs about the storms' history, I'd love to hear them.

So some of you may have seen a blog post I put out about this story going on a temporary hiatus. Well, it's a possibility. I have an idea behind Queen Nevei and how she became Queen Chrysalis, and how the Changelings came about. I had the idea for some time, around when I thought of Queen Nevei's character. I'll have to dig up some notes on what I came up with and see how far I can get in it. (I only intend for it to be a one-shot/short story, it won't replace this one)

Tell me what you guys think of the story! I haven't heard from y'all in some time so it'd be nice to get some feedback (I'm greedy). In all honesty, comments like Shadow of a Former Brony's here are awesome comments. Though they are all awesome. But still, ones with a lot of information or detail like that are awesome. Er.

PS. You guys should go check out the group I made for the Broken Feathers universe.

Thanks for reading!
- Sam.
Coming up next: Darkness takes over as more ponies disappear.

Comments

[Dashieluvzcandy]

Ooo! This storm is really creepy! Aww Quill was so cute and I feel sorry for her. Hmmm I caught some Broken Feather references in there. He he. That idea about Queen Nevei and the changelings back story sounds interesting since I've been wondering heaps about what happened with them. I admit I would like to see some of Dashie's thoughts about the 'disappearance' because I'm betting she'll try to chase after(forgive me if my memory about what's happened is messed up) but you already said she probably wouldn't be part of this. Plus I think she might distract me away from what's going on in the main storyline. Sorry I haven't commented in ages! Been pretty busy with other stories, real life stuff etc. you know the deal. Love this so far and keep up the amazing work!

[That Avi Nerd]

4668074 Oh don't worry, it's perfectly understandable. I've been pretty busy lately, too. My work has turned me essentially nocturnal, and the only time I have to write now is usually at work, assuming I'm not busy with whiny little inmates. In the past few weeks, I've only managed to write less than 5k words on Nevei's fall AND Desert Storm combined...

I'm just happy to see that there's still interest in the story!