The Wish

The Wish A Story From the Ponies with Butterfly Wings ~*~ ~*~ Many years has passed since Princess Cool Breeze of the Windy Wing Ponies disappeared. Will she ever be found alive? It is up to a Windy named Lightning Speed to find out! ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~      Sunset came with soft spring breezes that held a touch of summer in it. With shining hues of glorious gold, orange, pink and blue, the sun sank lower and lower behind the tiers of Wing Palace.
    Lightning Speed could picture the two princesses bedding down at this moment. But only one real princess was in there: Lady Flutter. The other "princess" would be Flurry, the replacement princess. Princess Cool Breeze had disappeared a long, long, long time ago.
    What does she look like? Lightning Speed wondered. Or did?
    "Oh Lightning! Come out of your day dream! Or should it be twilight dream?" a lilting voice giggled.
    Lightning looked up. Gale Blaze was hovering above him.
    "Hey Gale. How are you this fine evening?" he asked her.
    Gale zipped toward him with the grace and speed of a humming bird. Her faint pink-white body reflected the colors of the sunset, transforming her into a Pony more colorful than any Rainbow ever seen. An orange mane and tail flame behind her like banners of fire.
    "Whatcha thinkin' about Lightning? Me hopefully?" asked Gale slyly. Gale and Lighting had been good friends ever since they had met when they were just Babies.
    Lightning grinned. "Sorry, but no. Does anyone we're friends with know what Cool Breeze looks like? Or looked, like?
    Gale seemed to be taken aback. "Well, ah, anyone other than Dandelion, Ice Ball, Star Skimmer, and Flowergirl. Anyone other than them would know. Why? What do you want to do? Go off in search of her? Fat chance of finding her!" she said with a snort.
    "That's not funny! And not something to joke about!" he reproached her.
    Guilt clouded Gale's face.
    "Hey, cheer up Gale. Let's go for a twilight walk at the top of the waterfall. Or fly by Flutter Valley?" he suggested.
    She smiled. "Okay. Let's go!" she yelled shooting off into the sky.
~*~ * *~* ~*~
    Flurry woke to the sound of a knocking at the door. Normally, no Pony was allowed in the Wing Palace until noon. But Flurry rose to open the door anyway, seeing that it was, in fact, noon, by the brightness of the light.
    Bird songs and sunlight filtered into Flurry's room through an open window, giving her light to make her way around the room. She pulled a rope to swing open the heavy wooden door.
    The Windy Lightning Speed stood outside in the hallway.
    "Ah, Your Majesty, I am sorry to disturb you. Please forgive me," he said solemnly.
    "Why should I forgive you when I slept too late? No need to, I had to get up sometime anyway," she said with a toss of her mane. "Please come in. Sit on the window seat."
    Lightning obliged and sat.
    "I have come to ask about Princess Cool Breeze."
    Flurry was surprised. Usually when one of the Windies came to her, it was about why they still must be separated from the rest of Ponyland. Their questions were rarely about Ponyland itself, for the Windies and Summers knew everything to know about Ponyland. "Go on Lightning Speed," Flurry requested.
    So the Windy cleared his throat, and continued. "Doesn't it bother you that she just suddenly. . . disappeared? My friend Gale Blaze and I find it very odd and I have heard that nobody ever looked for her."
    Now this took Flurry totally by surprise. "Now wait just a minute! We searched for her until we were forced inside the palace for winter! There were no houses yet, and it snowed so much that winter we could have gotten out of the palace if we wanted to!"
    "Then why didn't one of you just fly out a window? Like this one?" Lightning persisted.
    "Am I going to have to throw you out or should I let you do the walking now? To save you the humility, of course," she questioned Flurry with a dark stare.
    Lightning looked furious. "You know, you've got some nerve. I thought you were the Windy's Princess," he spat. "I guess I was wrong."
    An with that, the Windy Lightning Speed stamped to the door, yanked the rope, and left.
~*~ * *~* ~*~
    As Lightning left the outer gate, he head snickering from behind him. Glow and Sunglider, the two guards, were trying to refrain from laughing.
    "What's so funny?"
    "You are Lightning Dweeb!" sneered Sunglider.
    "You think you're so cool, going to hit on the princess, cheating Gale Blaze of true happiness," added Glow.
    "Ha ha girls. Aren't you so cute," he snapped sarcastically.
    That's exactly when he saw Gale in the path.
~*~ * *~* ~*~
    Gale had heard all of it. Tears started to form in her bright green eyes.
    "Gale - I can explain all -"
    "No excuses. Not a word!" Gale spat at him.
    "Gale!" he started toward her.
    "Don't come near me Lightning! Leave me alone! I don't want you to speak to me ever again!" Gale screamed at the one who had betrayed her.
    With that, Lightning Speed flew away, out over the palace, and out of the valley.
~*~ * *~* ~*~
    Poor Lightning flew on and on, until he came to the intersection of the Rainbow and Flutter Rivers. There he landed to stop and rest.
    Rest before doing what? he thought. There's no place for me to go.
    He kicked into the churning waters, making a wish. "You know Cool Breeze? I wish that we knew if you were dead or alive. Things would be a lot different!" he yelled at the rushing rivers.
    Tears started to form in his eyes. He sank down on his hind legs, and cried. His blue mane seemed to wilt around him.
    He was about to go fall asleep when something on the bank across from him caught his eye. He raised his head, and he saw a crystalline object glittering in the sun.
    Lightning stood up and flew to the other bank to get a closer look. It was a small crystal bottle, roughly formed out of a hollow crystal and a rock wedged in as a tight stopper. He could see something in it, a piece of paper maybe (which ran rare in Ponyland), so he picked it up and smashed it on a rock.
    The bits of crystal blew away from the object inside. It was a piece of paper. On it was this:

Help me! I am trapped, I can't get out! I am about to be in cased in the remnants of the small crystal we had been trapped in before! Follow this map, and free me from the giant crystal. You must use words and speak them, just like the other crystal. These are them:
~ Fear not Princess, for the brave Pony who found your plea has come to free you. ~
Here's the map. Follow it well. It is a map of words, I am not good at drawing. I hope this has fallen into the right hooves. . .

Princess Cool Breeze

So she is alive! Lightning thought. Well, she was when she wrote that. But what about that crystal she speaks of? I know nothing of it! But if the others were trapped in it, and were released all alive, then she should be all right.
He read the map aloud. " 'To find the Crystal Cave, you must be one that's brave. Follow the Rainbow River through its course, all the way to the river's source. In the Barren Mountains, head West. This is the beginning of your quest. Past the Volcano you must follow along the path to a hollow. Near the hollow is a falls. Look closely, for solid through are not the walls. Behind the falls there is a path. Go ahead and do the math. The Crystal Cave is now near. Isn't there a wailing you hear? Do not be tricked, for it is a trap. Go straight with the map. So good luck on your quest. Bring another with you, it would be best.' "
At the bottom was a small note:

To the one who found this and saves me, you will be rewarded.

    "Whoa, But who would go with me. Certainly not Gale. And none of the other Windies or Summers would go probably, even if it was to save Cool Breeze. And I'm not supposed to communicate with any other Ponies," he wondered aloud.
    Now that puzzled him. Before there was even a Windy Summer Valley, the Summers and Windies always talked with other Ponies. But, as Moon Jumper said, after WSV was founded and Flurry became the replacement princess before Cool Breeze could even really reign, all was different.
    Then he had an idea. "Megan! I'll go to Megan for help! She's not a Pony, so it should be okay."
    He picked up the paper and fly off when he stopped in mid takeoff. He didn't know where Megan lived.
    "Oh well. I'll just follow the Rainbow, that's probably how whoever else found her," he said to himself.
    So he rose up, and flew Northeast to Ponyland's end of the Rainbow, the link to Megan's world.
~*~

~*~
A warm late spring breeze rustled the leaves of the old oak tree Megan sat in. The rough bark scraped against the back of her legs, even where her shorts covered them.
    Megan was in her last year of high school. Molly was a ninth grader now. For six years the little Ponies had came to her for help or for her to visit every month. But this month, nobody had came so far. She jumped out of the tree, and realized that was about to change.
    She could see an orange speck in the sky. As it came closer, it became the size of a Baby. But it had strange wings. Instead of seeing orange wings that a Pegasus had, it had butterfly wings.
    "What in blazes is that?" she asked aloud, just as the strange Pony made a touchdown.
    "Are you Megan?" the Pony asked after setting a piece of paper down.
    It was obviously a he, for the voice wasn't like a she's. He had blue hair and a yellow lightning bolt with black squiggly lines shooting out from it. His wings were slightly transparent, with dots and squiggles in pink, orange, blue, and green.
    "I am she, but who are you? What are you? What's wrong?" Megan asked him.
    "I'm Lightning Speed, a boy Windy Wing Pony. I need your help to save Cool Breeze, princess of the Windies of Windy Summer Valley. Our relatives, the Summers, live there too," he responded.
    Wow, Megan thought. Another kind of Pony.
    "I will help you. Why didn't I already know about you and your kind? Don't the other Ponies know about you? How did you know about me?" Megan fired questions at him.
    "the Windies and Summers know all about Ponyland. We know about you. Everyone know about you. But we must hurry, I don't know if Cool Breeze is still alive. This map I found will get us to her. Get on. Don't worry, I can carry you."
    Megan shrugged, and got on his back. He picked up the map and gave it to Megan to hold. And with that they flew.
~*~ * *~* ~*~
    When Lightning Speed landed, Megan knew where they were all too well. They were on the Volcano's North side, a place she had been to only when to visit the Flutters.
    They located the path easily, and they started forth on the journey to find Cool Breeze. It was a plain, dirt path that had grown weeds and grass from lack of use.
    Megan didn't even want to breathe when they passed the Volcano slowly. The path wound around the East side, and into Dream Valley territory. It was at the waterfall that she noticed they were being followed.
    She motioned to Lightning to stay quiet, and turned around very slowly to face what was behind them.
    A bright pink Rainbow Unicorn stood in the path. She had all the colors of the rainbow in her hair, and her symbol were some pinwheels. Her eyes bugged out at the sight of Megan and Lightning Speed.
    "I'm in trouble! Oh, look at the sun, I've got to get home bye!" she yelled, and with that, she disappeared. . . only to re-appear next to them.
    "Aah!" Lightning yelped in Megan's ear.
    "Oh don't be afraid! I won't bite. I shouldn't have done that. I'm Pinwheel. It's a good thing I found you two. You must e Megan. And you must be a Windy judging by your symbol. I don't recognize you, but you must be one of them!" she babbled.
    Lightning didn't say anything, so Megan came to his rescue for him. "His name's Lightning SPeed. He's a Windy. He's not saying anything because they're probably not supposed to communicate with other Ponies, like the Sparkles."
    "Oh! That makes sense. I'm not supposed to either, only Ponies that live in Unicornia, Unicornia Law One, Article. . . oh great! Now I'm really in trouble. Well, I'm already in over my head too. I guess I can tell you two. I was supposed to anyway. . .
    "I live in Unicornia, and like I mentioned before, we're in captivity almost. Like most of the lands are. Except for Dream Valley and where the Babies come from, Rainbow Glade. I am with the Unicorn Ambassadors, a group of ten Unis to break all of those silly laws like Unicornia's. In our group, there are Ponies from Tropical Paradise Island, Royal Paradise, Sweet Berry Plains, Candy Cane Mountains, and the twin Queen sisters Starhopper and Planethopper of Star Castle, home to the Sparkles.
    "All of us have a land to go to specifically first. The rest will be chosen later. My destination was Windy Summer Valley. So I was heading over there when I saw you, Lightning Speed, leaving Ponyland. So I waited. I saw you return with Megan, and I knew this would be my chance to get you to talk to Princesses Lady Flutter nd Cool Breeze -"
    "I need to interrupt here Pinwheel," Lightning suddenly said, surprising Megan. "Cool Breeze disappeared a long time ago, after WSV was founded. Me and Megan were about to try and rescue her with the help of this map Megan is holding -"
    Now Pinwheel began to make some strange noises, a high, soft sighing sound. "Uh. . . Why didn't you tell me that earlier! Lemme see the map!" she screeched, her eyes bugging out further.
    Pinwheel studied the map over Megan's shoulder. "Ooh. . . Then that means. . . um. . . ooh! So the opening to the Crystal Cave must be behind that waterfall!"
    Pinwheel galloped to the waterfall, tip-toed around it and she was engulfed behind the rushing waters.
    "Pinwheel wait! You didn't read the whole thing!" she called after the Unicorn, running towards where she disappeared, leaving Lightning behind.
    "Hey Megan wait up!" she heard him call as she stumbled along the small path around the waterfall.
    Lightning arrived, and Megan could barely hear her new pink friend say, "Took you two long enough! I think I hear something! This way!" Pinwheel veered to the left, down the trap. . . "Yikes!"
    "Pinwheel!" she and Lightning screamed in fright.
    Just then, Pinwheel appeared right next to them!
    "Oops, took a wrong turn it seems. That first step is a doosy. Huge pit. I didn't want to know how deep it was, or what was at the bottom, so I used my magic to get back up," she explained.
    Megan shook her head. "You obviously didn't read the part about a trap and to go straight. 'Always look before you leap.' Very good advice. But in your case, it seems to be look before you step. I use that when I'm on a busy city sidewalk and don't want to step in gum! Come on, let's free CB!"
    She led Lighting and Pinwheel further back with a penlight she just happened to have in her pocket. The light was dim, but it worked. Soon crystals could be seen on the walls of the cliff corridor and were in a cavern.
    Inside, the cavern with a glow huge crystal in the center of the room. It cast a greenish aura, and it resembled a Windy or Summer Wing.
    "Read off the word key Megan. And stand back. Let's hope this works," Lightning told Megan.
    She nodded, and pulled the map from her pocket. " 'Fear not Princess, for the brave Pony who found your plea has come to save you." Man, that is so sappy! she thought.
    Nothing happened. So she began to try again. " 'Fear not Prin -' "
    "Let me try! Maybe it has to be a Pony speaking, and the one who found it," Lightning said, scrabbling to see the map.
    "All right all right! Geez O Impatient One!" Megan yelled Lightning pushed her away.
    The map was now on the ground. Megan grinned on the inside while Lightning tried to twist his head into the right position to read the key.
    " 'Fear not Princess, for the brave Pony who found your plea has come to save you."
    All was still.
    The crystal shattered. Shards of sharp crystal flew at Megan and the Ponies. She screamed as the pieces knicked her bare and exposed arms and legs.
    A bright flash of white light lit up the room, and the cavern went dark.
~*~ * *~* ~*~
    When Lightning Speed came to, he found himself in the hollow near the waterfall.
    "What? Did the whole cave explode or something?" he said to himself.
    He stood up, and found Pinwheel and Megan on the grass out cold. Megan's legs and arms where cut and bleeding a little, but they seemed to be alright. Then he looked up.
    Princess Cool Breeze hovered above her. Well, it had to be her. She was green with green hair and a palm tree symbol.
    "Thank you brave one. I do not know you or the girl. I do recognize Pinwheel though. I thank you all for saving me. I can tell a lot of time has passed."
    "I'm Lightning Speed, Your Highness. You're right, a lot of time has passed since you disappeared, ten years in fact. Ponyland is in chaos. We are no longer to communicate with other Ponies in many places, including Windy SUmmer Valley. Or silence was Flurry's order."
    Cool Breeze gasped. "Flurry! So that's why she imprisoned me! To become princess! It was all a power trip! That back stabbing Windy! Oh I'll have a talk with her! Come on Lightning Speed, let's go!" she exclaimed, starting to fly back to the valley.
    "Wait!" he yelled after her. "Flurry did all this? No wonder she got so peeved!"
    They neared the valley, flew straight to the amethyst Wing Palace. They touched down inside the outer wall.
    "I have a better idea! Everyone should be at the courtyard now for a meeting! That's were we should be!" Cool Breeze said flying off.
    The courtyard wasn't very far away, and Windies and Summers gasped in amazement as they flew over. Princess Lady Flutter and Flurry were on the raised podium.
    "Windies and Summers alike! e have a traitor in our midst! I have returned only because Lightning Speed found my plea for help. But had he not, justice would not be served! He went against the no communication order to save me! And the one who is responsible for that ridiculous rule is the traitor herself!" Cool Breeze shouted to the crowd.
    Everyone, including Lightning, turned to face Flurry.
    "We trusted you Flurry!"
    "It's your fault!"
    The Ponies started to advance toward the podium.
    "You don't actually believe that traitor and her do you?" Flurry wailed.
    "Who's the traitor? Lightning is no more of a traitor than anyone else here except you are!" a voice yelled in defense of Lightning. He recognized the voice as Gale's.
    "Now everyone, don't hold a grudge. Flurry will be held in the top tower as her punishment. And if she tries to run, there will be nowhere for her to hide, because all of the Windies and Summers will alert all of Ponyland!" Cool Breeze assured with a cold stare.
    "Lightning! Cool Breeze!"
    He turned in the air to see Megan and Pinwheel running up the path.
    "This is Pinwheel and the girl Lightning found. I don't know the girl or where she is from, but Pinwheel lives in Unicornia," Cool Breeze said to the crowd.
    Pinwheel held her head high and stood in the center of attention. Lightning had a good idea of what she would say.
    "Yes, I am from Unicornia, but I have a proposition to make to you guys. I am with the Unicorn Ambassadors, a group of nine Unicorns and myself who want to put an nd to these laws about no communication, about silence. We want to unite Ponyland as one again. The way it was near the beginning. Unis from Jewel Desert, the two Queens of Star Castle, Dream Valley, and other places are going to the different lands in Ponyland to gain their approval of the largest campaign in Ponyland history! Silence and separation has gone on too long! In Unicornia, we will strive to turn against the gossip queens and break the Silence Act! In Star Castle, QUeens Starhopper and Planethopper will work to change the laws Queen Shimmer set! In Tropical Paradise Island, Hula Hula will try to build bridges to the mainland! And more can and will be done!" Pinwheel announced.
    "Join with us, and never be in silence again!"
~*~ * *~* The End It doesn't end here! Next: Unicornia: Let Peace Unite the Lands Until then! ~*~ Back to Ponyland Visit Back Home ~*~ Thanks to Flowie and Cool Breeze for information about the Windies, the Summers, and their lifestyle. Thank you, thank you, thank ya very much!