Never Lucky

by Ferris the 1st

Chapter 22: Rage and Ice

Putting aside pain and fear, the view from the upper part of Canterhorn Mountain wasn't bad. By the time that Feral Storm had finished venting her frustrations upon me, I wasn't really in a state to pay attention to where she was taking me from. It also wasn't until I realized that the air was bitingly cold that I managed to regain enough brain function to know that I was very, very high in the air. Still bound to the chair. This mare was dedicated to making sure that I couldn't do anything to stop her.

Currently, both her hooves were wrapped around the upper rung of the chair and I could hear her grunting with the effort to carry me. She was a bit of a smaller mare, what could I say? Of course, at the time I was more concerned with the lack of ground beneath my hooves and the miles before meeting it again.

“Look, Storm right,” she ignored me, “I'm pretty sure that you don't care, but it wasn't anything personal. I was just doing my job. Also, the whole operation lead to one of my friends getting really messed up in the process, so I'd say we're even, yeah?”

“You could lose your whole family and all your friends and we wouldn't be even, Lucky Signs.” the mare hissed at me. Well, it appeared that talking her down gently was out of the question. She had enough hatred in her that she would probably cut my throat right in front of Celestia. I started quickly looking for anything that could help me out in this situation.

Mmmm... snowcapped mountain, empty air, and an angry mare. Not a lot to work with. Then I got a stupid idea. Like a really stupid idea. It all began when my mind pondered about how much the pegasus holding me up reminded me of Martial with her stern gaze and hostile attitude. If there was one thing that Martial had taught me about fliers, it was that they held their honor in an almost sacred light.

So, naturally, I sighed, “Too bad, I'll bet this is gonna leave a stain on your legacy, eh?” She stopped. That was a plus, but now she had her glare firmly locked on me as I craned my neck to look up at her.

“What's that supposed to mean?” she demanded.

I wiggled a bit in my bindings, causing the mare to have to compensate for the motion, “Well, I mean, just dropping me from a great height? Seems a little beneath somepony like you. I gotta wonder what some of the ponies you know would think about how you could only pummel me while I was tied up,” I let out a dramatic gasp, “would they think that you were too weak to fight me fairly?”

The wind howled in my ears as the seconds ticked by. I was just starting to think that my ploy had failed when she growled into my ear, “You think you can take me, ground pounder? I am a pegasus, heir to a legacy of proud warriors and above you, both physically and metaphorically, I-”

“Prove it.” I goaded her.

Something inside of her snapped; I could feel it. She snorted and flipped into a dive taking us both straight for a rise jutting out of the mountain. Behind me, Storm pulled something from her cloak and the ropes binding me came loose with a snap. I fell into the snow, rolling a few times before I managed to get my hooves under me.

“You think playing me like that is going to save you,” oh, her voice was cracking; she was pissed, “it won't! I'll savor this and end you with my own hooves!” I barely had time to register that she was coming in before she struck me like a diving hawk. Getting knocked from my hooves, my already bruised up body wasn't eager for another beating.

Too bad for me that Storm was all to eager to strike out at me now. It felt like every time I managed to get up, she was there to knock me back down (she had a damn painful hit) as she whirled around high above me. I had made a huge mistake at this point. As she circled around for another attack, I decided to just stay down and start rolling.

While it managed to help me avoid her diving strikes, I also didn't have a lot of ground to move on without reaching either a rocky wall or a long fall. I was either going to have to go on the offensive or figure something else out now that I was free of the chair.

It had been a strangely long amount of time since Storm had made an attack...

A sharp whistle was beginning to build, screaming over the sound of the wind around me. I glanced up, looking for a source and could just make out a purple dot at the edge of my vision. The whistle was becoming a violent wail as Storm sped toward me. At her speed, there was no way that I was going to dodge her attack and we both knew it.

So we were both surprised when the wind whipping around the mountain gave a sudden gust. Catching her angled wings roughly, she was thrown off course and crashed with a peal of thunder into the snow just a few steps from me. The snow beneath us shook as she tried to recover and the mountain opened up beneath our hooves.

We fell in a cascade of snow into a small cavern that had been hidden beneath the rise. I gave a panicked cry and Storm seemed too shocked to understand what was happening. Landing hard, I felt the air getting knocked from my lungs as I was forced to go prone from the impact.

After getting some much needed oxygen into my system, I looked around. The fall had brought us into what appeared to be an ice cave. The walls around us sparkled lightly in the sunlight that now streamed in from above us. It might have actually been cool looking (no pun intended) if I'd been given longer to take it in.

Storm had other plans. She recovered a bit quicker than I did and soon had me pinned against the wall, bringing her hooves to bare against me. Curling my own hooves defensively, I realized that her blows lacked power now. The cave itself didn't give her a lot of room to fly and she was no Impact.

I was preparing for a counter attack when I noticed something moving within the cave. Taking short glances between attacks from Storm, I could only catch glimpses of it. On top of that, I'd never seen something like it before as a ghostly figure drifted lazily toward us. It was vaguely equine in shape and seemed to grow more and more visible as it approached us.

“Storm,” I tried to warn her as she continued to strike me, “stop!”

“Buck you,” she spat in response, “I'll end you Lucky! You and your entire family! When Sunslayer has what he needs, we will watch you burn! Your luck means nothing in the face of ability! I hate you! I HATE YOU! HATE YOU, HATE YOU, HATE YOU HA-”

A shrill, otherworldly shriek broke through her rising tempo. Now she decided to turn and have a look with me, one hoof still raised to strike me. The creature before us had a form that flickered like a blizzard and the air about it seemed to leech what little heat there was from us.

“No...,” Storm whimpered, “that's not possible... no...”

The icy being floated toward us, not possessing hind legs and adding to its spectral look as it bore down on us. It looked between the two of us, squinting at me for a moment with the vibrant white lights that made up its eyes. After a moment, it snorted at me and turned toward Storm.

She backed up as far as the cave allowed her, shrinking in on herself as it approached. I only had a single word to describe the being before me: Wendigo. It seemed impossible as the story of Hearthswarming would lead us to believe that they had been wiped out by the spell that day. Yet here one was.

Storm whimpered and I snapped out of my shock and awe.

It was a breath away from her, gazing at her intently and as I watched, ice was beginning to encase her hind hooves. With the anger in her eyes replaced with fear, she looked so... innocent. Maybe it was an instinctive reaction for a stallion seeing a mare in danger. Perhaps it was some deeply buried hero-complex I had developed here recently. Regardless, despite her attempts to kill me, I found my hooves moving.

Then I found myself standing between a wendigo and its prey. The monster stared down at me, snorting in irritation and that stupid part of my brain started spewing words out of my mouth, “Nothing to see here. Move along. No mares with issues, just a stallion who does stupid things... and you're not buying this are you?”

To be fair, I didn't expect it to answer anyways.

The wendigo gave out a feral noise as it tried to move around me, but in my infinite stupidity, I moved to block it each time. Soon enough, it had decided that enough was enough. Its eyes met mine and I felt an intense cold. It hit me like a hammer deep in my gut and I was shivering more than I had been in the outside air.

How do I describe being subject to a wendigo's power? It's like staring into a deep well, knowing that at the bottom something is staring back. Adding on, that thing staring back exuded an aura of anger that made you feel small. Everything you've ever been angry about? It pales in comparison to the raw... “hate” doesn't even begin to describe the sensation that came from that thing.

I lost feeling in my hind hooves. Everything about me was growing numb and my vision was starting to darken, seeing only those eyes in front of me. Just when I was sure that I was about to become the worlds biggest stallion-cicle, a bright light filled the cave and I heard a pained sound escape the creature before me.

I wanted to turn and look toward the light as the wendigo suddenly decided it had other places to be, but I was too far gone. With my vision gone, I was left with only my ears to catch the sound of lightly flapping wings. Still, I had just enough energy to mumble out.

“If you're going to kill me, can I just have this nap first?” Then I was out for the second time that day...

Comments

[WolfWatcher7]

I'm seriously enjoying this story. I'm Lucky to have found it!

[Ferris the 1st]

9143264
I see what you did there I'm super stoked that you're enjoying it!

[Zipp Storm]

Hi. When will you get to the chapter with the volcano incident on the beginning of the sorry. If it’s not already published.

[Ferris the 1st]

9151777
It's not too far off at this point, probably within a few chapters

[Emperor]

Oh, that 'bright light' at the end. I bet I know what this is

Interesting that the Wendigo passed up Lucky to go straight at Feral Storm. I guess you're playing it straight with the Hearth's Warming tale, as it's probably targeting the pony who had a lot of hatred in her heart. Saying that, it's amusing how Lucky's luck comes through three times in a row, but zigzagging hard by the end.