Something Wicked this Wind Comes

“...and then they saw it wasn’t a weight-rack - it was a Windigo!”

High Winds and Lightning Dust were the first two cadets to start hollering, their sounds making the candles and generators around them wobble dangerously. Thankfully, Two Velcro-covered hooves shot out to steady those instruments, though. Much as Spitfire's wry frown indicated otherwise, she was out to keep the end of Thunderlane’s tale from being… well, their end.

“Really, private?” she began. “Thought you’d have more tact than to start spooking the cadets.”

“Well, I wasn’t scared, Cap’n.” Misty Fly’s puffed up retort would have probably been more convincing if not for her frosty-tail beating a rut into the floor behind her crossed hindlegs.

“A-apologies, ma’am.” A quick salute from Thunderlane, and Spitfire's stony face softened - but only partially. “Since that darned blizzard, though, I mean, better they’re jumping at those stories than every upset broom and windowpane, right?”

Spitfire idly stared at the snowdrifts beating white waves against a windowsill near her. Grinding down the edge of that window’s lip into the base until the noise died down, she sighed wearily. “Sure it’s that, ‘Lane?” Thank goodness for that nor’easter, or Thunderlane might have heard the lift in Spitfire’s voice from the change in tone. “Or is it because your brother and Soarin' managed to get you with one last Nightmare Night?”

“Yeah, speaking of…” piped up High Winds, finally prying herself from the shaking Lightning at last. “When’s Soarin' coming back?”

“Soon as we get those strange animals we pick up into the kennel.” Seeing Thunderlane turn away himself, Spitfire spent a second buffing the medals on her jacket before she cut the silence again. Thunderlane’s age, despite how given he was to chicanery and mischief, really showed through in little ways. “Goodness, what’s Cloudsdale coming to?”

“Yeah, I know,” came Lightning’s indignant huff. “First our main generator conks out, then we nearly lose all the food in the break fridge, then the Cap’n has is hike across what felt like half of Yakyakistan to get to the main buil-”

“Lightning!” Spitfire blinked away the stressed building in her temple. “We were talking about something else!”

A cannon-like bang of the door in the nearby hallway made all five pegasi jump as one. Thankfully, the two Wonderbolts pushing the door shut against the unrelenting curtains of white fluff made the disturbance short-lived. “Wait, you talking about that blast-out we had on the strip?” Soarin' huffed as he and Surprise finished stuffing the last of the towels under the door. “I’m shocked they didn’t hear it either.”

“Soarin' shut Surprise up please please pleeeeease.” Now Spitfire's tone was getting even more strained. Right next to her, Thunderlane slapped a hoof over High Wind’s mouth to keep her from screaming again, his own brow furrowing with worry.

“Wait, what fo-” Then Surprise got into the room and saw how chalk-white Misty was getting. “Oh… did not know we had the cadets here too.”

Soarin’s jaw dropped at that. “Oh, bu-horseapples, Captain. I didn’t know-”

“S'all right, damage’s done,” Spitfire groaned.

“Wait, what do you mean there was a shoot-ou-”

One look from Spitfire, and Dust’s mouth closed immediately. “Yes… there was,” growled the Wonderbolts captain. “Nearly a half-hour ago, when the storm was kicking up. And thankfully, the animal our phenomenally stupid visitor was firing at didn’t tag her. Wind Waker should be checking up on it soon, the second we get emergency power back on.”

“Can’t believe I’m sayin’ it ma’am, but thank goodness for small favors from that dust-up.” Surprise shook her mane clean of flakes -and sent the nearby Misty spluttering form the spray - before continuing. “The skycar those two blasters had has gas- we could use it to get us out of her if you’re game.”

“No way. Navigating our own base was bad enough in the start’s starting, it’s not worth the risk now.”

Soarin' threw down his soaking scarf in frustration. “Well, we’ve gotta do something, Captain! We barely’ got a day’s worth of food here, and that’s without considering the cadets here now! And if we’re spending all day looking over them, how’re we gonna alert the Cloudsdale Council to help us?”

Spitfire blinked. “What’re you talking about? Only six full-timers and five cadets are here, we’ve more than enough hooves to handle ‘em.”

“...we’re kinda right here…” muttered High Winds. Lightning Dust was soon stroking circles into her heaving shoulders’ though.

“Yeah, well - tell that to Fleetfoot.” whined Surprise. “Supposed to be greeting us at the door and she’s not. I’m tellin’ you, Cap’n, we’re losing control here fast.”

A quick glance at the hallway behind him followed. Her frame - cloaked in inky shadow as it was - confirmed Surprise’s words.

“Alright. Fine. I’ll see what’s up about her later.” Spitfire said. “In the meantime, ‘Lane; stop traumatizing our crew with ghost stories, or if you are, find better ones. Windigoes haven’ been around for ages.”

“I know, I know…” Thunderlane responded. “Just got the idea from how pink that little rascal we picked up was. I’da thought tti was a changeling at first - and the way those two pilots blasted it, maybe they did too.”

“No excuse for endearing Cloudsdale citizens in the crossfire,” Spitfire shot back.

Soarin’s tone got even lower as she leaned in to whisper in Spitfire's ear. “On that subject… I couldn’t catch ‘em in the tumble they took off the Academy's edge. I hope they made it but...“

Spitfire bit back a curse herself. “Later.” she whispered to Soarin', before turning back to Thunderlane. “Besides, that creature’s clearly a cat. From the looks of it, I think that Ponyville designer’s. Probably got into an accident or something, and considering Rarity’s not too far from here…”

“Wow, bad day for a Wonderbolt costume-expo, huh?” whistled Misty. “At least she’s got, the rest of our male ranks to keep her company.” At the sight of Thunderlane’s raised eyebrows, Misty scoffed. “To talk to, you perv.”

“Gotta say, Captain, that… cat... was pretty silent when we took it in,” Surprise added. “And how is it even walking on clouds, either? Thought cats couldn’t do that.”

Without even looking at Dust and Winds, Spitfire could hear their breaths pick up. Reminding herself to chew out Thunderlane more after the storm was settling down, she turned to Surprise. “All issues that take precedence behind us eleven being stranded in a bunker for Faust knows how long. I said, we can handle this, now wait-”

Ba-BZZZZZT!

And with a shuddering white pale light started flaring from the ceiling. “Woohoo, light’s back on!” Dust whooped. “You wanna check this place’s fridge you guys?”

The ability of Spitfire to argue was waning fast - but even she couldn't keep from smiling at the uplifting news “Later, cadet,” she whistled, the weight on her heart fleeing in record time. “Right now, I believe we’ve got a Wind Waker to thank.”

“All Wonderbolt cadets, head to the kennel immediately! This is Wind Waker, hurry!”

Soarin’s jaw dropped. “Is that Win-”

But Spitfire was already barreling past him, Thunderlane on her heels. It wasn’t even the panic in the Wonderbolt stallion’s voice that had gotten her heart thudding in her ears again. It was the un-holy wailing that was clearly echoing out through his feed.

It almost felt like an eternity through the twisting always - and the service-elevator - before they reached that small spot that kept the pets around. Unlike the now well-lit upper levels of the Academy this place was barely lit .The room was covered in straw and several large bots, crude yet well-padded shelter for the animals. Surprise had even taken time to spruce up some of the pens with flower pillars and wallpaper, the garish yellows and purples helping to brighten up the otherwise dreary room.

Which made them all the more dissonant with the horror show inside the biggest pen.

Struggling past the terrified Wind Waker and his flailing limbs, Spitfire’s eyes were first drawn to the carnage first. Three pups were almost plastered to the walls by strange goods that smelled as rancid as vomit and looked much worse. Because Spitfire wasn’t sure that vomit should be sloughing off the layers of fur and skin on them like a potato peeler.

And in the center of this braying, dying, chaotic mess, was… apparently, something that either ate that cat or was once that cat. Because right now, its originally sourpuss face had split in three, down the middle, into whatever curved arches of viscera, fangs, and tentacles. Ones that were whipping down its deformed back, turning its white fur even redder where it tore at it.

And it started to turn right at them, despite its eyes having long oozed into puzzles of clear sale between into twitch limbs.

Behind all of the horrified Wonderbolts, Wind Waker was still shaking and babbling, his thoughts as much a mess as the scene before him. “IswearIwasquitet thewholewayIjustlefttogetthebackuppoweronandthenIcamebackanditwas-”

Then Spitfire’s vision and hearing jumbled as a weight slammed into her side. Thankfully, that charger was Soarin', hurtling her away from the incoming Opal-whatever-the-buck-it-had-mutated-into. A swift buck by Thunderlane lunged the hissing monstrosity back into the cage door it had rent open, only for it to leap to the ceiling in the hall of winding Thunderlane and Soarin’s wings laughed at it. The brutal scars in the wall they left laid testament to the power they exerted.

It also blew the remnants of that blood-caked fur and gristle off the upside-down being, which showed itself to be somehow far more terrifying under the shell. Wispy pinky strips and contrails tapered off into the form of a pony far bulkier than all of them despite its small size. Its dazzling white eyes that seemed to cut into them harder than the snow, and a snarl on its mane that was as sharp as its limbs.

Before it could move though the sharp hiss of something to Spitfire's left cut in. Seconds later, she had to shut her eyes from the powerful gout of flame coming from her left side, as Surprise pumped the air of the flamethrower she was holding right at the creature. It howled, it screamed, it made unnatural contusions that Spitfire knew she’d see if she lived to be a hundred. But eventually it was still on the ground, a mess as tangled and ruined as the flames licking at its vanishing form.

It almost felt like years had passed, yet even the clock refused to support that lie, ticking out the end of the Wonderbolts’ first out in this facility. One they apparently shared with…

“What was that thing?!”

Horror gripped Spitfire's heart as she looked back to the open door that they’d been in. High Winds’ was biting back a scream for a different reason. Lighting Dust looked like she wanted to puke now. And Misty’s disheveled look spoke to a futile attempt to keep them away from this scene.

Spitfire and Surprise gulped.

“Well…” Thunderlane began, looking to the catatonic Wind Waker and the even more oddly-silent Fleetfoot for help and finding none. “Apparently, it’s the cat we took in.”

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