Chapter 60: Witnessed of Storms
Until meeting Rainbow Dash, Firefly imagined she was the fastest pony in all Equestria. Even with the painful reality of her limitations, she still saw herself as fast. She could move quick enough that she didn't even leave a blur behind.
She crossed her apartment in a flash, moving well away from the ritual circle. Without Lilac to tell her what it would do, she wanted nothing to do with its contents, or the magic it might summon. It wasn't that she knew it would hurt her. There were just too many unanswered questions, too many strange decisions and coincidences.
More than anything else, Firefly didn't want to hurt anyone. If the Lightless Star wanted to give her all that power, but made her kill with it—she wanted nothing to do with it.
A wave of air formed ahead of her, tossing the cultist in the hallway aside like dry straw. He smashed through a side door, before landing with a groan in a huge pile of chairs. Firefly tucked in her wings, preparing to pass through her bedroom—and stopped dead.
In just a few feet she had already reached considerable speed, enough that the sudden stop stole the breath from her lungs. She should've dropped to the ground, yet even with her wings frozen, she remained in the air. She struggled, muscles in her back aching as she fought against the strain. It felt as though her whole body was instantly submerged in thick gelatin, rendering her almost immobile. She couldn't even open her mouth to breathe!
Her eyes darted madly, watching paralyzed as she drifted back into the room. The force holding her was incredible, pressing down on every inch of her body at once. Even so, there was some give. She grunted and strained, and her feathers opened. If she kept pushing, she could even speak. “D-Dad! Don't—”
“Your father was appointed by the Lightless Star,” said the Watcher. His voice remained a whisper, yet somehow she heard it as though it were only inches from her ears. She couldn't turn to see, just felt something hovering in the air behind her. “His role was to prepare you for this moment, unborn one. We always knew you might recoil from your responsibility, retreating into the simplicity of your false life. But this cannot continue. We require the essence of one god to birth another.”
She floated over the ritual circle, perfectly in its center. She rotated slightly as she did, and could finally get a good look at Dusty. The pegasus’s wings were splayed to either side, eyes fixed on the ground. He didn't want this any more than she did!
She kept staring at him until their eyes met. She would be sobbing with terror, if her face wasn't frozen in rictus paralysis.
“Dusty rises above the vermin he was born to be,” Ether Lens hissed. “When the true gods return, they will elevate him to a true creature, with a soul of his own. You may even be the one to do it, in gratitude. If you will it.”
“Focus on your task, Ether Lens,” said the Watcher. He seemed so much further away now. Had he returned to his pavilion? “Abandon your pretense. I cannot hold her for long. If she were much older, this would be impossible. Perform the spell, now.”
She could hear the strain in his voice. That whisper sounded even older than last time, a dying patient shriveled on an oversized hospital bed. Holding her cost the Watcher somehow. His power wasn't endless.
The diagram began to glow, coming to life with a faintly green light. Ether Lens stood at the center, beside the largest crystal pillar. It was just like Lilac's scrying spell—some of those words were familiar to her, but most were utter gibberish, spoken in a language that made her head ache to hear.
Not just her head. With the volume of his incantation, an ache began in Firefly's body. It brought with it numbness that spread through her.
It was a little like falling asleep, and soon the numbness overpowered the pain. Why should she keep struggling, anyway? Fighting was hard, and she was so tired. She should just rest now.
She barely even felt it as she dropped to the ground, landing in an awkward heap. She bounced to one side, smacking against the inside of the circle. It was a shield, the same kind Lilac had used when they hid from Derek Ashsen. Only this shield faced inward, trapping her.
That shock was enough to cut through the numbness, at least for a moment. Her limbs moved sluggishly, but she still moved, staring around at the ritual. The two cultists returned, albeit one limping his way over with huge tears in his cloak. They surrounded the circle, while the Watcher observed from beyond a veil.
Dusty did not join the ritual circle. He took a place beside one of the dark pillars, but didn't chant along with the others. “H-help...”
Firefly wasn't going to curl up and let them do what they wanted to her. If she didn't get out, who would warn Lilac? She took off again—clumsier this time, bumping one wing into the circle. She flew up, bouncing from one side of the circle to the other. But she didn't have far to go. Soon she reached the ceiling, and would just smack her head into it. That roof was sturdy, with solid beams and tile and a whole garden up there. She couldn't buck it over like an earth pony.
The voices below got louder, accelerating. One by one the candles burning around the circle went out, their light somehow devoured by one of the five pillars. She felt them pulling on her too. A whirlwind, drawing her down towards each of those black points.
“I won't!” She whimpered, spreading her wings to either side. She didn't need to feel her body to change the weather. She moved her wings anyway, reaching, longing for the endless sky above. All she needed was a window, and she could leave even the Watcher behind. She had to get out!
“Hurry!” another voice spoke from below, barely audible over the chanting. The Watcher, with real desperation now. “Look at her! Finish the spell!”
Lighting arced between her wings, striking out at the ritual circle. Sparks exploded from the contact, and her ears rang—but the circle remained. Her mane lifted, and one bolt was joined by others. The downward gravity of air became a whirlwind, spinning in a blur around her. She trimmed her wings, tucking her legs in close, and fought the storm.
She rose upward against the current, towards the wooden ceiling. A blast of energy struck against it, igniting it in a flash. but there was only a tiny gap, not even as wide as her hoof. She strained, gritting her teeth, and a second blast tore it open—revealing sturdy wooden beams, blocking the way upward.
No! Even incredible power wasn't enough to open the ceiling—not in time. Firefly began to sink. Not towards the floor anymore—a vortex of smoke and darkness rose beneath her, extended from each of the fire pillars. Within it she saw nothing—no alien stars, no hideous void. There was only oblivion.
Her strength waned. Another bolt struck, but this one was barely a firecracker. It isn't enough. I can't get out.
Firefly's confident flapping became a desperate struggle, feathers billowing through the air around her. Now the pain reached through magical numbness, the burn of terrible cold against every muscle and sinew. She screamed, struggling in futile desperation, fighting for every inch.
Firefly had survived the transit between worlds, survived a second childhood as an alien horse, survived against demons and fairies. Now she would die to a dark spell cast in secret in the place she thought was her home.
She faced her father as she dropped lower and lower, where he stood in silence beside a crystal pillar. Tears streaked down her face, drawn down into the vortex beneath. The pony who had protected her all this time was there to watch as she died. She didn't even have the strength to call out to him anymore.
Dusty jerked sideways abruptly, smashing his shoulder into the crystal pillar beside him. Firefly watched, transfixed as it tumbled to the ground in front of her, then shattered in an explosion of pink and blue sparks. It tumbled across the edge of the circle, breaking the even green glow into an unsteady pulse that barely held together.
Strength washed over her in an overwhelming flood. A few desperate flaps became confident and powerful, her wings arcing with a trail of bright yellow.
She screamed, sending magic exploding from her in all directions. She barely even heard the shouts of panic from under her as thunder rocked the building, shaking the unsteady apartment to its foundation. Windows shattered, photos tumbled from the walls, and the building groaned under the strain.
The other crystals toppled over, one by one, shattering with little explosions of light. With each one she felt her strength returning, until she could feel the sky above her again. More than feel it—Firefly could reach it.
She was in no place to think, her voice twisted into a shriek of terror and desperation. Nothing mattered to her now except escape. She felt the currents in the flow across the face of the planet, great processions of moisture and trapped potential on their own appointed courses. Equestria was an organized ballet of hot and cold, damp and dry, delivering ideal weather to its inhabitants.
Firefly didn't care about the greater design, she just needed a way out! Something gripped her again, the same force that had dragged her into the ritual circle to begin with. She couldn't hear the Watcher’s voice over the ringing in her ears, and the terrible wind. But she didn't care what he said anymore.
She flapped her wings, leaving glowing afterimages in the air behind her, and spreading the growing flames above until they caught the carpet, the walls. “Let me go!”
The roof lifted off the building, spinning into the deep green vortex. It lifted Dusty's furniture collection, then the cultists too, powerless to resist its current. The whirlwind spun wildly around her, yet she remained perfectly still at its center, hovering where the ritual had trapped her.
Only when she saw Dusty go spinning up into the air did Firefly even realize what she'd done.
This isn't an abandoned mine! We're in downtown Willowbrook! This was her storm, and already it strained, tugging away from the building she had called it to escape. How many ponies would get swept away, caught out of the blue by a magically-summoned storm?
With so much power flowing through her, Firefly didn't have to know how to stop the storm. The winds themselves were her teacher. They spoke a harsh lesson—she could not banish the power she demanded just because she didn't want it anymore. It could only be transformed.
Firefly shot up into the sky, coursing straight through the center of the vortex in a yellow-orange trail. She caught great waves of air with her wings as she flew, disrupting the cyclone's contact with the ground.
She could not banish it now, but this tornado was only a subtle flavor different from a thunderstorm. The altitude blurred past her as the cloud expanded into a vast, dark thunderhead, roiling with energy within. Wind howled and moisture smashed up against her, buffeting her in the air.
Whatever surge of magical strength the failed ritual gave her—it was running out. Her mane stopped standing on end, and the glow in her feathers dimmed. The gale had been her servant, but now it reminded her of just how small she was, shoving her hundreds of feet through gaps in dark clouds.
She struggled forward, searching without flight-goggles for one dark speck against the downpour. “Dusty!” she screamed, her voice desperate and afraid. “Dusty, where are you?”
Equestria would be better off if the storm took the cultists into the sky and they never came down again. But not Dusty. Whatever the Lightless Star said about all the ways he had been working for them from the beginning, Firefly didn't care. His intervention set her free.
She broke the top of the cloud, emerging into the thin upper air. Moisture on her feathers and coat froze instantly into a spiderweb of frost, chilling her. She ignored it, arcing up over the thunderhead, scanning the cloud beneath.
There! A single dark figure was splayed atop a stable portion of cloud, unconscious. Even at a distance, she could tell it wasn't a pony. Firefly didn't care. She tucked in her wings, and dropped into a dive.
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Go Dusty. But now Firefly has a whole different problem to worry about…
Sweet.
Also, Dusty's a changeling. We all clocked that back when he was introduced, right?
Well then. If this doesn't call for another round of investigations from Celestia, I don't know what will.
Don't die, Dusty.
i kinda home firefly accends into an alicorn of weather as even if it was only for a short time she more then earned the station
The cult really reaped the whirlwind now. Time to grab Dusty and Lilac. There's no place for them in Willowbrook anymore.
Sounds more like a sacrifice ritual than an ascension one.
Seems like a soul isn't worth whatever Firefly would have gone through.
The jump from junior weather pony to storm goddess is quite an impressive promotion even if it's temporary.
Try explaining this to Equestria now.
There's nothing for them in the cult. It's time to leave Willowbrook.
Really heating up now. Maybe they could've played off the equestrians but there's no escaping what's happened with them attempting this ritual.
nice chapter
Awww dusty does care
Dusty cares more for Firefly than he does for the cult which is good. It's no surprise that Dusty is a changeling of course. Equestria's attention will be drwan very strongly towards Willowbrok now with so many events taking place in such a short time.
With it all but absolutely 100% confirmed in the storyline, I have to wonder what will happen with Lilac and Firefly when they bring a changeling to the glade
11316417
Nah, The Whirlwind reaped them... hopefully.
As we all suspected, he's a changeling. Hoorah!
Yeah, that was probably some kind of nightmare moon transformation - the 'essence' of Luna would create Nightmare Moon, after all... And the Watcher even said that it could be Firefly to grant our friendly changeling a soul.
Impressive that she was able to wear down the Watcher so much, though! He only barely managed to contain her, until the stored magic in his ritual kicked in. It shows he isn't some unstoppable force, on the scale of our heroes.
Well, that escalated... Dusty's non-poniness aka look-at-the-story-tags is confirmed, looking for more : )
i bett the watcher is just some old fart who wants to be immortal too and the power that comes with it
11316721
As much as i'm biased against immortality bad, please don't cure cancer plots as a medical scientist, given he's already a living corpse, I get the feeling he's already achieved immortality. Nah, this is lust for power. Pure, magical/political power.
11316485
No way the Sisters didn't notice the touch of a god-like being on their planet.
Although I do have to wonder if Firefly will ever reach that kind of power on her own. They are growing stronger, after all, and the ritual mostly seemed to just enhance the powers she already had.
I feel like a ritual that needs you to sacrifice a god may be overcosted.
In case it wasn't clear that Dusty was a changeling... though the Watcher calling this a pretense does muddy the waters a bit.
That said, no matter his species, acting out of love to topple the machinations of a mad despot is always welcome. Though between the fire and the unlicensed tornado, the rest of Equestria's going to come down on this town like a ton of bricks. And something tells me the Watcher survived. (He definitely didn't enjoy it, but I'll believe he's dead when I see his corpse crumble to dust. And even then, we may want to break out the unlicensed particle accelerators.)
Knew he lied. He wanted to be the one to become an Alicorn!