18 - The Wind's Howl
Luna kept herself oriented in the direction Spike had vanished. "Blast it." Surely there had been better ways of doing that, but it was far too late to prevent Spike's leaving. "At least you found her, we hope."
Her wings were sore, and she was barely flying. Well, that wasn't entirely true. She was working hard to keep stable and upright despite the howling wind that battered her body. "What I would give for goggles at this moment..." But none were to be had, leaving her squinting painfully at the scrubbing grit trying to get at her.
At least Pinkie was still trying. She could feel the rope pulling her forward.
Pinkie climbed over rocks and hilly terrain. "All this wind could at least knock it over," she grumped, but pushed forward. "My friends are counting on me," she reminded herself as she slid down the back end of the hilly outcropping, pulling her alicorn-dragon kite along in the direction it seemed to want to go.
At least until she thumped against a wall. No mere hill, it stretched up past where she could see through the blowing dirt. Pinkie explored it to the left and right quickly, feeling along it with a hoof. Solid, long, and in the way. She reached up a hoof into her gusting mane and pulled out-- oops. Her suction cups flew away, becoming some extra debris on the hurricane-like winds. "Guess I'm doing it the hard way."
She pressed her hooves into each little crevice she could find, climbing slowly upwards to get past the wall that had the unfortunate need to be right where she needed to go.
Spike scaled across his adoptive sister, mounting her as he had lost much of the habit of doing. "Spread your wings."
"What? It doesn't help." She flapped powerlessly against the swirling winds.
"Straight out. Calm down and listen." His eyes were closed, free of stinging, at least a little. "I saw how Luna did it. Reach out nice and stiff. You have enough wind, more than enough, so no flapping. Gliding is the goal. You've seen birds glide, right? Straight wings."
"Like a bird," she repeated in a low muttering, lacking the confidence Spike was speaking with. "Right." She slowly straightened her wings, the wind trying to batter them right off her back, or so it felt. "It hurts, Spike... Are we going to--"
"--We will, Twilight. Come on... We've faced worst." He gently stroked a claws hand over her withers. "I've seen you do so much more than fight a wind storm."
"I had my friends," admitted Twilight in a small voice.
"You still have me." He patted her firmly. "Gonna have to be good enough."
Twilight let out a little choke of a laugh. "Of course you count. I'm sorry, Spike. You're trying so hard." She stretched harder, getting her wings into position, a few feathers ripped free of her, but their rocking eased. They were gliding, mostly. "Like... that?"
"Like that," assured Spike. "Also, you still have friends, let's get to them. Luna's flying up here looking for us. Pinkie's on the ground, pulling her."
"Pulling her?!" Twilight looked back over her shoulder at her rider. "I know Pinkie can do amazing things, but pull a pony up in the air from the ground? How?"
"Rope," he answered simply.
"Oh..." Perhaps Twilight felt silly not thinking of it. "That makes sense... I wish I had a little rope right now." Her face suddenly brightened. "I have an idea. Let's make their jobs easier." She lowered her head, horn starting to glimmer with magic.
She exploded, light bursting from her in a great display of her cutie mark in light, even if the driving sand made it harder to see than it normally would.
Suddenly, far to the left rather than in front of her, Luna saw a bright flash. "What in Tartarus...?" There were precious few things that could make light on that horrible little rock. "Twilight!" She began to bank, hoping Pinkie would go in the new direction. "We are on the way!"
Down below, Pinkie flopped out onto the top of the wall, huffing for breath and getting a lungful of dirt that had her coughing wildly, the rope grasped desperately between her fore hooves as she got it out. "Alright, this is... becoming less fun." She grabbed the rope in her teeth and felt it tugging in a new direction, following the wall. "What's going on up there?"
There was no way for her to know. It was her job to pull. She got to moving in the new direction. "At least you aren't asking me to go back down this wall. Sheesh, I'd have to quit."
Spike blinked his eyes open. Even closed, he had seen the brightness of the flash from directly atop Twilight. "Woah! Hey, good idea. I'll help." He raised a hand in front of his own mouth, trying to filter some of the air he was getting as he inhaled slowly, even if he had to cough some of it right back out.
Lowering his hand he let it all out, flames erupting into the sky to help signal any rescuers nearby.
A new voice came from the driving grit, "Spike, Twilight!" It was Luna, even if they couldn't see her. "I am coming as quickly as Pinkie can... pull me."
Twilight let out a strangled little laugh. "It worked! It really worked... They're coming, Spike. We're going to get out of this."
"I told you that." He gently rubbed the side of her neck. "Just hang in there a little longer, keep us steady."
"Steady, right. Princess Luna! We're over here!" she hollered into the storm, facing where she had heard Luna's voice. Her face brightened as the dark fur of Luna came into view, even if she looked equally as haggard from her endured sand bath. "Luna!"
"There you are." Luna adjusted her aim slightly to be on point with them, but the movement stopped. "What is she doing down there?"
"Noooooo!" The kite was tugging her back down the wall. "Alright, alright... You can do this..." Instead of climbing, her patience too frayed, she did the only reasonable thing. She jumped.
Luna barely got out a squeak before she vanished from sight, yanked down out of view. Twilight blinked at the place that had held Luna. "What...? Did you see that?"
"Yeah..." Spike patted her shoulder lightly. "Pinkie must have done something. They know where we are. We just have to wait a little longer."
Luna sank abruptly before her wings could fight that force. It felt like something was... hanging from her? She shook her head. "Enough." With a glowing horn, she yanked and pulled, drawing up the rope. Soon there was a Pinkie, dangling by her mouth. "What happened?" She deposited the party mare on her back. "Never mind, we have two to rescue."
"You already rescued one," chimed Pinkie, settling in for her ride. "How are we gonna get back down though?"
"I have a plan." She ascended, fighting the wind. "Twilight!"
Twilight's ears pricked upright. "Did you hear that?" She looked wildly around. "We're here!"
Spike blew fire over her head, making a more visual cue of their presence. "Over here!" he shouted as the fires petered off.
Luna almost crashed into them from below, going from unseen to careening into them in an instant. Everything was gone. Spike could feel the universe flowing. They were teleporting, in that strange non-space.
They appeared in a cave, thrown bodily in different directions. Each grunted with the pain of impact. None of them were eager to move at the instant, just breathing quietly.
But they could breathe. The wind could be heard, but wasn't lashing over them.
Spike sat up first, coughing up grit and dust. "Alright... alright, we... We did it. Luna, that was you, right? You hopped back to one of the caves." He looked around. "The one with the balloon."
Pinkie was the next to hop to her hooves. "Phew! That was a lot of work, but we did it, hurrah!" She bounced up and down in place, looking much happier than she had been not long before. "What's next?"
Twilight pushed herself to her haunches, breathing in fast little gasps. "First... I thank Princess... Luna. Luna, thank you... You saved us."
"It is... my pleasure," replied Luna about as breathlessly. "I... see Spike found you."
She held out a hoof and Spike approached, letting Twilight grab him in a sudden hug. "I thought I'd be lost forever and then there he was. I was so happy." She began crying into the crook of his neck, burying her face into it. "I was so happy..."
Spike was patting her on the side. "You did good. The balloon wasn't hurt at all. How did you even do that, by the way?"
"I confess curiosity as well." Luna was slowly sitting up, recovering from her efforts. "You surely hadn't the time to plan that."
"I didn't." Twilight stood up, shaking faintly. "I appeared in the middle of the storm. The balloon was ripped away from me, or I was ripped away from it. Either way, I lost track of it instantly, and everything else after that." She wandered closer to the folded balloon. "But it made it, good... We'll want that when we leave, but we're not up to that."
"Speaking of that." Spike pointed to Pinkie. "How's Maud doing? Any easy way to reach her?"
Pinkie shrugged. "We could try shouting. It worked last time."
Luna looked towards the darker interior of the cave. "We were in the other cave. Perhaps they are linked? I am... still recovering. If one of you wishes to attempt it, be my guest."
Pinkie swelled with a powerful inhalation of air. "Hey Maud! You in there?!" Her voice echoed and bounced against the hard stone walls, but no reply came right away, leaving Pinkie frowning. "Guess not..."
"Wait, other cave?" Twilight turned away from the balloon. "You've been exploring. I feel like such a foal, getting lost like that. You had to work so hard just to rescue me."
Spike thumbed up emphatically. "What are friends for? Only Luna has a lock on the first cave, so we need her to catch her breath before we can consider hopping back to there."
Ears pricked. A noise was approaching, a steady clip-clop. Eyes locked as a figure emerged. There was Maud, approaching them. Pinkie zoomed across the distance, tackling her sister. "There you are! Why didn't you say anything?"
"I was close," she calmly explained. "I just walked." She looked past Pinkie. "You found Twilight."
"It's good to see you're safe." Twilight trotted closer. "Please tell me your survey has been successful."
"I've studied the rocks." Maud turned calmly to the wall closest to her. "It's very hard."
Luna canted her head faintly. "Well, yes, but can it be broken?"
"No." Maud reached out and tapped. "But there's softer rock. You can break that. Pinkie, did you bring your 'extra fun' fireworks?"
"Extra extra fun?" gasped out Pinkie, vibrating with excitement.
"That one."
"Yes!" Pinkie reached up and produced a barrel, slapping it down, a wick dangling from the top of it. "Ready to make a nice big show."
Maud turned back into the innards of the cavern system. "We need to put it in a few places, then light them at the same time." She looked over her shoulder at Twilight. "Can you do that?"
"Hm? Yes, that shouldn't be a problem." Her expression cautiously brightened. "So we can break apart this rock?"
"That is what we'll do." Maud was already walking back inside. "This way."
Luna pointed. "I will remain here. Somepony has to get the balloon ready for use. I should imagine we will have very little time to do so after you've started explosives."
Spike flinched. "Oh, yeah, good call." He looked between Luna and the others. "I'll keep Luna company. I can't help much with this part."
"Be safe." Twilight trotted over and gave him a soft hug. "We'll be back."
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10272424
Not exactly. Doing my Threadfall chart and figuring out the climates, Yakyakistan and the Crystal Empire are both sub-arctic. Most thread would freeze to death, yes, but there is still a chance of live thread since this is taking place in late summer.
10272767
I think you're doing a gtreat job! :)
Let it not be said that Pinkie is one to give up easily.
#bestpony
Reminds me of the flight lesson in The Sword in the Stone.
Yes, I looked that scene up.
Thank you, miss Obvious-pon.
10303563
Too bad it was not the fourth wall. Pinkie would have just put holes in it to climb or walked right through.
I guess mass has no effect on gravity here because...magic?
It's a huge otherworldly object with hills and cliffs that has been hurtling through space for untold eons but they can break it apart with just a few pounds of explosives because...magic?
And the Thread originated from this rock? But there is no thread actually on the rock? Is it...in the rock somewhere? Somewhere in the rock they haven't been? Wouldn't blowing up the rock cause more Thread to fall?
That being said, I do like this story overall, and this chapter. I think you did a good job describing everyone's personality, and I like the emphasis on the bond between Twilight and Spike.
10303849
You are picking at the source material a bit there. The thread isn't the thread in space. It becomes that as it crashes into the planet, its hard shell burning away in the process and revealing the hungry thread that was once a creature's digestive track.
At least they havent bumped into any of the giant space pyukumukus that made all those caves?
Yay, the gang managed to rope everyone together again. Lets just hope the balloon doesnt have to do a Lost In Space to escape.
10303743
If it were, I hope she would've comes through, at some point