On Swift Wings

by Jade Ring

Chapter 6: the Great City of Zeph

“Ugh! Are we there yet? It feels like we’ve been flying for years.”

Captain Cross Wind cut eyes at the blue Pegasus keeping pace with her and grinned. “Getting tired, Rainbow Dash?”

Dash returned the grin, making a show of pushing forward a few inches ahead of the armored mare. “Not at all. Just bored is all.”

Cross Wind stuck out her tongue and tasted the wind. “We’re nearly there. We would’ve been there already, but the winds shifted some hours ago.”

“It’s fascinating. The way your city works, I mean.” Fluttershy called from just behind the pair. Unlike them, she was clearly straining from the long flight. Her coat was thinly veiled with sweat, and she panted every other breath. “Do you simply go wherever the wind takes you?”

“Not always.” Cross Wind looked back at the yellow mare and ensured that her brother was still in position, bringing up the rear. “There are certain places that we must be for certain times of the year. There’s a bay we seek each summer to stock up on fish, and a tribe of earth ponies trade with us for fruits and vegetables each autumn.”

“And all of this outside the boundaries of Equestria.” Rainbow Dash shook her head in disbelief. “And you’ve lived this way for nearly two thousand years.”

“It is not an easy life.” Cross Wind looked ahead and smiled when she saw a familiar spire. “But it is one that I would not trade for any other in the entire world. See! Behold the great city of Zeph!”

The four pegasi looked ahead and beheld, at last, Zeph; last of the legendary cloud cities of the Pegasus Tribe. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy stared, mouths agape, at the sheer size and scale of the place. Compared to Zeph, Cloudsdale was barely a village. The city was miles in diameter, with huge towers ringing the impressive perimeter. The city was a series of perfectly sculpted circles, each filled with finely crafted buildings and statuary of various heights. Everything was formed from clouds, from the streets to the houses to the statues. As they drew closer, they saw sentries posted in each tower. All were clad in the same armor as their escorts, and they saluted Cross Wind as they passed into the city proper. Cross Wind flew low so the new arrivals could take in the detail of the great city.

Rainbow Dash marveled and thrilled as she took in every detail. There were weapon shops and cloud smiths. She spied an open courtyard where an aged cloud artisan guided several students in shaping different kinds of cloud into precious works of art. A platoon of what appeared to be new recruits performed a series of combat maneuvers at the behest of a shouting instructor. The scene was almost identical to her own training in the Wonderbolts Academy, except Spitfire had never shouted her corrections in what was supposed to be a dead language. It was all so overwhelming. She’d read about the great cloud cities since foal hood. To finally see one with her own eyes was beyond her wildest dreams. If only Firefly could see her now…

Fluttershy was likewise amazed, but something else quickly caught her attention. “Where is everypony?” Besides the students and recruits that were plainly visible, there were only a few pegasi in the streets, milling around and visiting various shops and the like. Far too few than were to be expected in a city of Zeph’s size.

Cross Wind shook her head sadly. “Our numbers have dwindled these past few decades. We once numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but now barely a thousand remain. This section of the city is the only one still populated. The far rings lie abandoned, I’m sad to say.” They flew towards the city’s center; a huge dome with a spire reaching towards the sky. Lightning flashed from time to time, striking the spire and making it glow in the fading sunlight. “This is the Eye, the home of the Queen-General and our base of operations.” Following her lead, the other pegasi landed beside the Eye and looked around.

Rainbow Dash was practically bouncing in place. “I’m standing in a great cloud city!” She nearly squealed. “Scootaloo is going to flip the next time I see her.”

Fluttershy sighed in relief as she was finally able to fold her aching wings. She wiped the sweat from her brow and looked back at her escort. “You haven’t said much. Is everything okay?”

”Neztrácel bych na tebe slova, zrádce závodu!” Cumulus muttered. He caught his sister’s piercing glare and quickly looked away.

“Please forgive his tone. My brother is young, Fluttershy. And foolish.” She rolled her eyes and doffed her helmet, letting the ambient wind of the city flow through her short mane and cool her skin. “It’s why he wasn’t able to promote with me.”

“It’s hard for me to be offended when I have no idea what he’s saying.” Fluttershy giggled. “Does he ever get jealous that you get paid more than he does?”

Cross Wind raised an eyebrow. “What is the meaning of this word? Paid?”

“You get more bits than he does, don’t you?” Dash stopped drooling at the architecture and turned to the conversation. “Or whatever form of currency you have here.”

“I do not know what currency is.”

Fluttershy cocked her head. “But how do you pay for things? Do you have a barter system, like with those earth ponies you mentioned?”

Cross Wind scoffed and shook her head. “You must understand some things, Fluttershy. This is Zeph, and we are the Children of the Hurricane. Our ways are different than yours.” She pointed to herself. “When each of us comes of age, we are inspected and assigned to whatever position we are best suited for. Most, like my brother and me, were born to be soldiers. Those unfit for duty may become attendants to lower generals, weaponers, or shopkeepers. A precious few become cloud artisans or homemakers.”

“Then how do you have shops if nopony can pay for anything?”

“You mean food? One’s station determines one’s rations. The higher your station, the more food and supplies you can receive from shops.”

“So, correct me if I’m wrong.” Fluttershy bit her lip. “You get assigned a job, right when you come of age, and that job determines your station?”

“Correct.”

“And what about after? Can you ever change jobs?”

Cross Wind snorted with laughter. “Change jobs? What a ridiculous notion…”

Fluttershy’s follow-up was lost when a thin pegasus wrapped in a filthy brown shroud landed close to Cumulus. She reached out a hoof and stroked his armor plated barrel. “Dlouhý let, vojáku?” She whispered, her voice low. “Mohl bych vám pomoci odpočívat …”

Cumulus drew back like he’d been burned. He raised a hoof to strike, the metal on his gauntlet flashing dangerously. “Nedotýkej se mě, děvko!”

Fluttershy saw the mare cowering and hurried to her side. “Stop! What in the world did she do to you?”

At the sound of her voice, the cloaked mare looked at Fluttershy in shock. “Můj ... můj motýl?!” She reached for the pegasus slowly, almost as if she was afraid of her being frightened and running away. “Ale to nemůže být...”

Cumulus struck without warning, smashing into the mare with a full-on tackle. She cried out as he took her to the ground and bound her forelegs with a rope he produced from his armor. Her thin wings, pale gold, emerged from her shroud and beat once in desperate escape before a second length of rope bound them as well. He stepped back and gave his work a once over. He cut his eyes at his sister and commanding officer. “Objednávky?”

Cross Wind wrinkled her muzzle in obvious distaste for the bound mare. “Do buněk.”

Her words seemed to stoke the fears in the mare’s heart, and she began to struggle against her bonds more bodily. She looked desperately at Fluttershy. “Zachraňte mě, můj motýli! Zachran se! Poslal jsem tě pryč! Proč jsi se vrátil?!”

Cumulus kicked the mare in the ribs. She cried out in pain, but otherwise became still. With a salute to Cross Wind and a nod to Rainbow Dash (pointedly ignoring Fluttershy) he hefted the mare onto his back and set off in a brisk trot towards a tall structure in the distance.

Fluttershy looked at Cross Wind in fury. “What in Equestria was all that about?”

Even Rainbow Dash looked taken aback by the viciousness of the encounter. “Yeah, what gives? Was she a criminal, or something?”

“Worse.” Cross Wind spat. “She is nedotknutelný. She is… Untouchable. And I will remind you, Fluttershy; strictly speaking, we are not in Equestria.”

“Untouchable? Why? Is she sick?” Fluttershy thought at once of little Scarlet, still undersize and still dangerously prone to sickness of any kind. She unconsciously wiped her hoof on the clean cloud beneath her. “Is that why she can’t touch anypony?”

Cross Wind shook her head. “That mare betrayed her calling, her purpose. She betrayed the Will of the Hurricane.”

“What did she do?” Dash inquired, more out of curiosity about the society than any real concern about the mare’s wellbeing.

“I cannot say. That particular Untouchable became so when I was but a foal. But her crime must have been a grievous one. Otherwise, the Queen-General would have simply executed her.”

Fluttershy’s ears flattened. “You… you have executions?”

“We have survived these years by being strong, Fluttershy.” Cross Wind replaced her helm and turned back towards the Eye. “More often than not, the strong have no time mercy.”

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Dash yelped as something tugged on her tail and pulled her backwards away from Cross Wind. She glared at Fluttershy and yanked her tail out of her sister-in-law’s mouth. “What is your problem?”

“We need to leave. Right now.” Fluttershy looked around at the walls of the hallway in the Eye they were now travelling down, illuminated by special stones that flickered with captured lightning bolts.

“Leave? Why?”

“You saw what happened out there!” Fluttershy hissed, trying to keep her voice down. “You heard Cross Wind. There’s something bad about this place. I can feel it.”

Dash rolled her eyes. “So they’re a little backwards, I’ll give you that. But that’s what they came to us for, right? To show them the magic of friendship.”

“This is way beyond friendship, Dash.” Fluttershy flinched at a noise down the hallway. “For Celestia’s sake, they execute ponies.”

A memory flashed before Dash’s eyes, like a fading photograph. A memory of a drunken old fool pleading for mercy as she dove forward towards the ground. “Maybe… maybe they had it coming.”

“…What?”

Rainbow Dash backtracked quickly. “That’s not what I meant. I’m not saying its ok. Hay, I’d even say it’s the first thing we need to talk about them not doing anymore. But it’s their culture. We have to be more, uh, tolerant.”

“Tolerant.” Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “To murderers.”

“Look, ‘Shy. You’re looking at this the wrong way…” She started to turn away.

Fluttershy reached out and turned Dash back around, looking at her with desperate eyes. “You aren’t looking at it at all!” She pointed a hoof at Dash’s chest. “You’ve been goo-goo eyed at this place from the start. You’re being blinded…”

“From what?” Dash pushed her best friend’s hoof away. “What am I being blinded to?”

“I… I don’t know.” Fluttershy looked down the hall from where they’d come. “But I’m going to find out.”

“Ahem.”

The two mares looked back to find Cross Wind standing before a great door of what looked like solid ice. Dash exhaled and looked Fluttershy in the eye. “I know you’re feeling a little culture shock right now. But me? I feel… I dunno.” She looked at the frozen door. “I feel like I’ve come home, somehow.”

The reason for Dash’s behavior, her willingness to go with the flow, suddenly became clear. “You think your parents lived here.”

Dash nodded. “I do. And I think this Queen-General could be the one to tell me what happened to them.”

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

The doors of ice swung shut with an almighty bang, and the two visitors from Ponyville watched as Cross Wind ascended to a raised dais in the center of the room. Moonlight shone down on the dais from a large open port in the roof of the Eye, illuminating a throne made from storm clouds. They watched as Cross Wind landed before the throne, removed her helmet, and bowed low at the figure seated therein.

“Kdo je to válečník, který klečí přede mnou?” The shadowy figure called out in a rich voice, soaked in absolute authority.

“Tento válečník se jmenuje Cross Wind, generál královny.” Cross Wind replied without rising. “Přivezl jsem velvyslance z Ponyville.”

“Excellent.” The voice switched immediately to pitch perfect Common Equestrian. “Place them before me.”

Cross Wind rose and looked back at the two other mares. “Come.”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy obeyed, floating up towards the dais.

The mare in the throne spoke as they approached. “I thank you for your hastened arrival, ambassadors. I am Valeria, Queen-General of the Children of the Hurricane, Lady and Sovereign of the Great City of Zeph, and I bid you wel…” The voice cut off abruptly as the two mares landed before the throne and gave perfunctory bows. “Im…impossible.”

Rainbow Dash rose. “Your highness, thank you for the invitation and the offer of aid. We…” She stopped and unconsciously stepped back in shock. The mare in the throne was an electric blue, albeit one a shade darker than her own coat. Around her shoulders was tied a cloak of free-floating turquoise material the likes of which she had only seen twice before. The mare wore an enormous helmet of gold with plumage a deep and fiery red. Her eyes…

The Queen-General’s eyes were identical to her own.

“What… what is this?” Dash stammered.

Slowly, with shaking hooves, Valeria reached up and removed her helm. A cascade of rainbow colored mane flowed free, trailing nearly to the floor and dancing lightly in the breeze that flowed from the open sky-light. “It… it cannot be.” The helmet fell to the dais with a clatter, but neither mare seemed to notice. “Ma… Malá Duha?”

Rainbow Dash blinked rapidly. “I’m sorry. I don’t speak…”

“Rainbow. My Little Rainbow.” Tears were gathering in the corner of Valeria’s eyes. “It must be you…”

Cross Wind’s wings flared and she grinned savagely at Fluttershy. “I knew it! Při východním větru, I knew it!”

Fluttershy looked back and forth between the nearly identical mares. Valeria was clearly years older and their coats were different enough, but the resemblance was still uncanny. And the mane! She’d never seen anypony with a mane like Dash’s. This was no coincidence. It was impossible.

“Years and years ago, my Malá Duha, my Little Rainbow, was taken by a thief in the night. We searched for her, for days we searched, but the trail had gone cold. The night she was stolen, there was…”

“A terrible storm?” Dash finished, her eyes widening.

Valeria nodded.

“I… I don’t believe this.”

Valeria’s wings flapped once and she crossed the dais to Dash and ensnared her in an enormous hug. “I can hardly believe it myself. After all this time, my daughter has come home to me!”

Rainbow Dash, frozen in shock, automatically returned the embrace. Her hooves felt the material of the Queen-General’s cloak, and she sucked in a breath at the familiar texture of her oldest possession; the blanket she’d been found wrapped in. “I… I always hoped you were alive…”

Valeria sniffled and squeezed her long lost daughter. “And I you, my Rainbow. I always hoped.” She pulled away and smiled. “Let me look at you.” She appraised her, from mane to tail and nodded approvingly. “You’re built like your father; thin but strong.”

Dash’s eyes widened. “My father! Is he…?”

Valeria’s smile faded. “Um… no. He…” She shook her head and kissed Dash’s forehead. “But we will discuss all this later. You are here on business. This village you call home… you require aid?”

“It was the Changelings, your Majesty.” Fluttershy offered.

Valeria nodded solemnly. “So I’ve heard. We’ve clashed with them many times over the years. Never had I heard of an attack the likes of which your village suffered, Lady…?”

“Oh! Uh, Fluttershy.” She offered a small curtsey. “Just Fluttershy. Mayor Applejack is my sister-in-law.”

The corner of the Queen-General’s lip twitched. “Indeed? How nice of you to represent her. It shows tremendous character.”

Fluttershy was struck by how much Valeria’s praise meant to her. Maybe it was the tone of voice or just something about the way the Queen-General carried herself, but the small compliment sent a flash of pleasure through her body. “Her Majesty is too kind.”

Valeria laughed, a high and ringing sound. “I’ve been called many things, Fluttershy. ‘Kind’ is not usually one of them. Kindness does not serve much purpose here in Zeph.” When she saw the reproach in the other mare’s eyes, she shrugged. “But it does not mean that we cannot be kind when the situation calls for it.” She looked to Cross Wind and stood at attention. “Captain!”

Cross Wind snapped to attention at once. “Ma’am.”

“You will assemble our infantry and depart at once for Ponyville, rendering whatever aid they require.”

Cross Wind’s visible confusion was evident on her face. “The… the whole infantry?”

“Zeptáte se svého generála královny?!” Valeria’s voice became as loud as thunder, as chill as ice.

Cross Wind did not cower, but stood straighter. “The whole infantry. Yes, my Queen-General.”

“Leave behind your brother and a few sentries to guard the towers. They will escort us when we follow you on the morrow.”

Cross Wind saluted sharply and was gone in a flutter of wings, vanishing out the sky-light.

Rainbow Dash looked at Valeria (could this amazing mare be her real Celestia-blessed MOTHER?!) and cleared her throat. “We aren’t going with them?”

“Not as of yet.” Valeria embraced Dash once again and breathed in the smell of her mane. “You’ve come back from the dead, my Little Rainbow. We must celebrate for at least one night. Surely you must be hungry.”

Dash’s stomach betrayed her. “We have been flying for a while…”

Valeria pulled away and clapped her hooves together twice in quick succession. A stallion, well-groomed but with no armor, materialized as if from nowhere and bowed lowly. “Inform the cooks that I will have guests for dinner this evening. And tell them that this is a special occasion.” She beamed at Dash. “Our princess has returned home.”

A wide grin spread across Rainbow Dash’s face. She was dazzled, bewitched, and entranced by the past few hours. For the moment, she couldn’t think of Ponyville. She couldn’t think of Scootaloo. For the moment, she couldn’t even think about Applejack. She lunged and was welcomed into another embrace. “I knew.” She whispered. “I always knew you didn’t abandon me.”

“Never.” Valeria whispered back. “I would never let you go.”

Fluttershy watched the reunion and smiled, but behind the smile her mind was racing. There was something wrong here. Every instinct in her body was screaming that they were in danger, that something terrible was lurking just beyond where she could see. But what could it be? Ponyville was about to be getting all the aid they’d ever need. Rainbow Dash had found her birth mother. Everything was perfect and amazing…

Fluttershy’s smile faded as the first part of the puzzle clicked into place. Yes, everything thus far had been perfect.

A little too perfect.

She looked back at the great ice doors and swallowed hard. The mare that Cumulus had taken away. Maybe she had the answers she was looking for. She resisted the urge to excuse herself and seek her out then and there. Suspicions or no, this was no time for rudeness. She would dine with the Queen-General.

Then she would get her answers.

Comments

[Great White Prime]

It's finally here.
Nice job!

[Spiritus Arcane]

Bet this chapter would be VERY interesting if we could understand the Zeph language.

Also 50/50 odds Valeria being Dash's mom is a hoax. The other 50 being that she is, but there's a lot more to how Dash ended up in Equestria than she's saying.

[Jade Ring]

9978152
This was the biggest hurdle and the reason this chapter took as long as it did. After this, the untranslated ancient pegasi appears less frequently. I struggled over whether to translate some lines and not others. Ultimately there's a couple bits of info that, if left in plain English, would spoil some major revelations ahead of time.

[Triforce of Doom]

I forget if you mentioned this in previous chapters since it has been a while, but is the ancient language based on a real world language?

[Jade Ring]

9981266
Czech

[Yami Vizzini]

After so long... and then it takes even longer before I can give it the attention it deserves....

Things are definitely in motion now! And even without translation, I think that brief in-flight encounter said a lot....

[Commentpony]

9978152
You can use Google translate Czech --> English

[Commentpony]

9981470
Your stories are great and amazing as always! I was wondering if there was a specific reason you chose Czech?

[Jade Ring]

My stepmother is Czech. Little tribute to her.

[themetavoorhes]

Valeria’s smile faded. “Um… no. He…” She shook her head and kissed Dash’s forehead. “But we will discuss all this later. You are here on business. This village you call home… you require aid?”

Im sensing whatever happened to him Valeria did it herself