Night Reigns

by tursi

Chapter 8 - Soaring on the Breeze

Corporal ‘Stratosphere' Racing Wind was an ex-showpony, an ex-hippie, and an ex-Wonderbolt. In his first life, he was trying to fulfill a childhood dream of acquiring magic through hard work and practice. His sleight-of-hoof was good, but meant little in a world of true unicorns. He ended up settling in a remote nature spa, working to create natural products and live as simple a life as possible. This was pleasant, but he never felt quite satisfied.

It's often the most unexpected things that change one's life, and even his simple life didn't prepare him for how easily his purpose came to him. While flying a delivery of supplies for the spa back from the nearby village, he found his path blocked by a towering thunderhead cloud. Without thinking about it, he soared upwards to fly over it. As he crested the top of the cloud he was struck by the cold, steady wind of the jet stream, and found he'd climbed higher than even the weather ponies usually did.

Rather than dip back down to a safer altitude, he had a rush of euphoria. The wind ruffled his feathered wings in a way that felt like caresses and he found that he was able to anticipate the blasts and eddies, soon using them to his advantage. He was hours late back from his errand but he didn't care. Even better, he'd finally earned his cutie mark and he knew exactly what he was meant to do – to soar the high altitude currents where few dared to go.

His flight skills eventually led him to try out for the premiere flying team in Equestria – the Wonderbolts. He made it through the Academy with honors and his fast, agile flight served him well in the flight team. His only problem was that he found it extremely boring. He had been considering quitting the team when Night fell and suddenly the Wonderbolts were no longer required. He found himself in front of a recruiting officer for the new Royal Guard.

"The Lunar Guard is looking for the best fliers. Now, I know you've heard a lot of nasty rumors about us, so I am going to tell you right up front that we aren't going to punish you for saying no. But, I've heard that you're a heck of a flier."

"Yeah, dude, I mean… I'm pretty good."

"You don't sound very proud of it."

"I can be honest here?"

"Of course. I'm just the recruiting officer, I'm not here to judge you."

"Well, dude, I'm just… the Wonderbolts are just really boring, you know? All that formation flying and stuff."

"But, you're very good at it. And your cutie mark clearly involves flight. What more do you want?"

"Dude… I want to soar! I was made for altitude! But man, the Wonderbolts never fly so high… it's hard for some dudes to stay up there, and the ponies on the ground can't see us anyway!"

"You can fly that high? Stable flight?"

"Dude! It's like I've gone home every time I'm up there!"

The recruiting officer smiled. "How's your eyesight, son?"

It turned out that his eyesight was very, very good. He was uniquely qualified for stealth reconnaissance and had already flown many missions. Now, he was possibly flying his most important mission yet.

He banked towards the east and flapped a few more times to gain extra altitude and cast his sharp eyes downward to scan the ground. From up here, he could see for miles in every direction, but it required some mental focus to be able to make out details below.

"You understand your mission?"

"Yes, sir! I'm totally on it!"

"Find the Queen, or evidence of her location. Tell nopony, don't be seen."

"Don't make contact and report back to you. Dude, don't worry, I'm the best pony for the job!"

He'd already checked all of Canterlot and the surrounding area, and done a preliminary pass of the mountain ranges. The next closest town was Ponyville. It was approaching noon and he could already see ponies making their way here and there – no doubt for lunch. Still, it took him another fifteen minutes to be close enough to start looking for details.

His sharp eyes scanned the village carefully. A pony trying to hide something wouldn't make it obvious to any passing pegasus, but Stratosphere had a knack for noticing things out of the ordinary. His eyes passed over the town square carefully as he circled, taking the time to look at each structure. Houses, a furniture shop, numerous stands in a small market, a bakery… wait!

There was definitely something suspicious about the pony that just emerged from the bakery. She wore a cloak over her body and she was moving too carefully, looking around too often as she stashed a bag of baked good under her cloak. He circled lower, still well out of easy notice, and watched as she kept to the sides of the street and clearly tried not to draw too much attention to herself. He noticed something else, too. Even from far above, the way her crimson striped mane flowed around her amber face struck a chord with him, and though cautious, she moved with a confidence that was very appealing.

He followed slowly as she turned down the street, watching her with growing admiration until she turned down an alley and pulled her cloak's hood up over her head. Now she was just a shadow amongst shadows and he had to focus to keep her in his sight – a moment's broken contact would complete her camouflage and even he would have trouble finding her again.

She moved quickly through the streets of the little village, never staying in one direction for too long, often turning and sometimes even doubling back, but he could tell she wasn't lost. He drifted with her, far overhead, until he realized she was making her way out to the edge of town. She hesitated once more, looking left and right, and then with a sudden flash of magic she was gone.

He scanned the area again. Teleport spells were still a rare magic, but even the most talented unicorn couldn't travel very far without a large amount of power. He was that certain that she just didn't want anypony to know which building she had gone into, but, there were only a half dozen in reasonable range and then the edge of the town. He studied each carefully and committed them to memory, although he saw nothing that felt out of place. Still, it was good place to start.

Suddenly something else caught his eye. Another unicorn, dark blue and so still that he had barely noticed her, was laying on the roof of an inn just a couple of blocks over. Her attention was focused past the edge of town, and he followed her line of sight into the Everfree Forest.

Again he frowned. Ponies didn't go into the Everfree Forest, not even the Royal Guard. But something felt wrong about it, very wrong. He couldn't articulate it, and he wasn't psychic by any means, but as his eyes scanned the dense canopy something just FELT out of place.

He debated with himself for a moment, holding his position. Something needed to be investigated here, but he didn't have anything concrete to take back. He cast his gaze towards the horizon – there was still a lot of Equestria to check out, and he wasn't expected back for a couple of days.

Finally he made his choice and turned downwards, diving silently towards the ground. He curved upwards just before striking, landing quietly on all four hooves between a couple of small houses within view of the path into the forest. There in the distance his sharp eyes picked out a flash of crimson tail vanishing into the trees.

He hesitated yet again, the forest was about as far from his native element as he could get.

"I should just report what I've seen. I don't have to go in there."

The thought made sense, but he thought again about the way she'd tossed her head as she brought up the hood. It would sure be nice to see her up close – and he had the authority to question her.

"Dude, bad idea. I'm not supposed to be seen or make contact."

He reasoned further, then. If he followed her long enough to see what she was up to and could see it was nothing to do with the Queen, then he certainly could say hello without compromising his mission.

"Well… that makes sense. Yeah, I'll just scope the situation first. I wouldn't want to lose the first clue I found, anyway."

He charged into the forest along the path he had seen her on. He remembered reaching the point where she had vanished into the woods, but it was some time before he remembered anything else.

Comments

[Obsidian Raindrop]

Man nightmare really screwed up just vanishing on everypony.

[The Pyropath]

6838180 Why does every comment you make on this story get downvoted? Have an upvote to balance off the downvote troll.

[NewKerbalEmpire]

7006309 It's because all of the previous ones were whining about Trixie not being in the story. As for this chapter's comment, we just see the troll's profile picture and think 'Bitchy Spam'.