//------------------------------// // Thoughts Carved in Ice // Story: Winter's Grasp // by Zman537 //------------------------------// I woke up with a loud yawn and looked around. It was still dark and the others were still asleep. Huh, wonder what woke me. I looked out the window and saw the Moon was starting to set and the start of my second day was about to begin in about....... two hours, give or take. I looked at the others for a moment and found it hard not to say that Vinyl looked freaking adorable with the way she was sprawled over the edge of her bed. If she slid out just a little further... she would faceplant into the floor of the car...... or worse, into Octavia who was a bunk below her. Although that would be funny as all hell. The train was still moving and I didn’t want to wake anyone so I reached for my bags and pulled out one of the books. It was one of the journals that had no writing so I reached in again and pulled out a quill and one of the ink bottles that had, thankfully, thawed and I laid back on my cot’s pillow as I opened the first page. It was a bit irritating that all my writing was freezing onto the paper the moment it left my quill, causing it to form into a dark blue coloration. Journal Entry 1, Day 2 Somehow by either luck that sucks balls, fate that can go fuck itself, or that bastard child of the two I have found myself in a situation that is more like a shitty science fiction-fantasy story that should be possible. After having my body altered slightly by some form of creature called ‘Wendigos’, I currently find myself stuck in a world that has talking ponies and magic. Through books that I found alongside this journal, I know that my best bet on finding out what these Wendigos are is the kingdom of ‘Equestria’. I also seem to have gained this ‘magic’ as I have now have the ability to control ice and snow. I normally would have called anyone out as a liar if they told me they could do this, but having it happen right in front of me by my doing only makes me worry over what I could do if I lost control. Despite all this, my biggest worry by far is that- A groan from across the car made me jump slightly causing me to strike out what I had wrote. I stopped moving and looked over to see that Vinyl had rolled back onto her bed and knocked a pillow down onto Octavia. I sighed and capped the ink before putting all of the materials back into my bag. The quill got it’s own pocket due to the still wet ink on the tip. I hopped out of bed and started to move down the car to the door that lead further to the front. I made my way down the cars and possibly may have scared the ever living shit out of most of the passengers. “AAAAAHHHHHHHH! MONSTER!!!” Okay.... All of them. GOD FUCKING- What is it with theses ponies and FREAKING THE FUCK OUT!? Vinyl and Octavia didn’t panic THIS much!! Hell, Vinyl didn’t panic at ALL!!! I just ignored them as I passed the panicking ponies and made my way to the dining car. There were more ponies here then I thought there would be..... This place better have something other than ponies in it or I’m going to go insane..... In the dining car were more panicking pansies and the one sight that made my day not turn into a genocide. A mother fucking griffon was a bartender... A. Fucking. Griffon. The most bad-ass mythical creature since ever. I sat down on a stool in front of him and sighed. “Can I have something heavy to drink?” If I’m going to start drinking not two days in, I might as well start with the hard stuff... The griffon grinned. “Sorry sir, if you’re wanting strong then you’ll have to wait till we reach our destination. The citizens of the Crystal Empire don’t really make any good alcohol.” I slammed my head into the counter. “Fuck..... can you point me to the dining car then?” The griffon chuckled and pointed a car further down the train. “The dining car is that way sir.” I got up and he put a claw on my shoulder. “I can also tell you didn’t get on at the station, I saw you when we passed the old one that was recently closed.” I gulped and the griffon gave me a calm smile. FUCK! He probably told the conductor and now I’m going to get tossed over! Just FUCKING PERFECT! “Ask for Pierre. He should be able to get you a decent meal.” And he can tell that I’m broke..... Just who the fuck is this guy and how is he so good? I nervously looked at him with a wary eye. “Er.... Thanks?” He smiled and started cleaning a glass. “No problem, but you best be going now. I’m pretty sure that all the screaming woke up some of the heavier sleepers.” I walked away with a sigh and headed off to what was soon to be my breakfast. As I got to the door the one on the other side of the car slammed open. “What’s with all the screaming?” I turned around and saw Bass looking at me tiredly. I let him catch up and shrugged. “Oh, it’s nothing. It just seems that your sister’s reaction to me is about the same as most of the passengers.” He blinked sleepily before he chuckled. “I’m not awake enough for this.” I pointed over my shoulder. “Want something to eat? I’d pay, but I don’t have any money.” He yawned and trotted ahead of me. “Sure... That usually helps me wake up.” We walked into the next car and you can probably guess what happened. I have to give props to a pair of unicorn waiters and the griffon chef. They were facing me like I was an esteemed critic that could ruin them if they did so much as breath incorrectly. One of the waiters trotted up to us with a pair of menus. “Would you care to see what we have?” I nodded and took the menu before the waiter went back to the kitchen area. I wasn’t surprised by the mass of vegetarian food... about fucking 99% of the damn thing. There were a few fish meals in the menu as well. I looked away from the menu and chuckled. “Well, the Salmon looks good. What are you getting Bass?” Bass was looking at the menu, “I think a salmon would go well right now.” I did a small double take and cleared my ear. Wait.... pegasi eat meat? Bass looked over to me and saw my slight shock. “What?” I shook my head to clear it before replying. “Sorry... I didn’t know that you could even eat meat. I figured that since you were an equine...” He laughed a little and set his menu down. “Most don’t, but pegasi can infact eat fish, though that’s pretty much it. It’s been slowly going down in popularity now that more protein rich crops are being farmed, so fish is relatively cheap.” The waiter came up and opened a small notepad with a glow from his horn. “And what will you gentlemen be having today?” We gave him our orders and he quickly wrote them down before looking to us. “And what would you like for drinks?” I thought for a moment before answering. “A lemonade please.” Bass yawned, “Coffee.” The waiter gave him a slight stink eye before writing down the order and giving us a polite bow. “Your order will be ready in a moment.” He trotted off to the kitchen and I turned to Bass. “Ya know, I’m kinda amazed.” He looked at me confused. “Why?” I pointed around at the car. “They managed to fit both a dining hall AND a kitchen into one car. Compared to back home, this place is already amazing.” He just gave me this funny look. “You think this old car is amazing?” Before I could reply our food arrived. “That was fast.” The waiter nodded. “We have a surplus of salmon due to the lack of passengers who are willing to eat it.” He levitated two cups down and set them in front of us. “Your drinks sirs.” I nodded and took the drink before starting to eat my salmon. Wow. This is actually pretty well cooked! My compliments to the chef. We both ate in silence for a while. I didn’t want to seem rude by talking with a mouth full of salmon bits that was hastily shoved in my mouth, and Bass was just silent. I thought about what my new abilities were like and looked at my drink. There was a disturbing lack of ice in it. Are these ponies Dutch or something?* I focused on my drink and a cube started to form in the glass. Fucking boss! Right there! Bass was about half way done with his fish when he looked up at me. “Hey Zach?” I held my hand up for a second before swallowing the mass of fish. “Yea?” “What did you mean last night when you said, and I quote, ‘ripped from my home’?” I sighed and laid down my fork. “I figured that you would ask something along those lines.” I took a large swig of my lemonade before setting the now empty glass down. “Tell you what, I’ll explain everything when we finish up our breakfast and head back. Deal?” He gave me a quick nod and we continued eating. When we got back I saw that only Vinyl was still asleep. Octavia looked over at me and smiled. “Good morning, Zachary.” Jump mumbled something incomprehensible. Bass leaned over and said. “That’s morning for, ‘Good morning’.” I resisted the urge to laugh and looked over to Vinyl. I grinned slowly as I made an ice-cube in my hand. I shushed the others as I slowly crept forward and slowly lowered the ice. I then dropped the cube when it was about half an inch from her neck and barely managed to dodge the horn on her head as it swung upwards. SWEET JESUS! I really need to plan this kind of stuff and stop doing it on a whim! Vinyl was gasping in shock as she jumped out of her bed. “COLD! Cold cold cold!” She tossed her head to the side and the ice fell off. “What the heck Zach!?” I raised my hands in defense. “Sorry, couldn’t help it. You being the only one asleep made you the perfect target.” We were all laughing at her expense and eventually she was laughing with us. Bass looked over at me once we all stopped laughing. “Alright, now that that is over. You were going to explain a bit more on what happened Zach?” I sighed and looked up at the quartet of curious ponies. “Fine, I’ll talk. But I warn you now, there isn’t much to it.” I opened my bag and pulled out one of my blank books and some ink again. Might as well write it down. “Where I’m from, things are a lot different. And that’s just from what I’ve seen in the past 48 hours.” I stopped for a moment before looking over to Vinyl. “Do you know what a videogame is?” They all shook their heads. “Alright, that question’s answered.” If someone from home was here, they could SEE the sarcasm drip off of me. I proceeded to write down everything I said in the book. “Okay, you all know how I said I was ripped from my home?” They all nodded. “Well I meant that literally. I was working on some concept art for a story my boss was writing. It was the middle of winter and there was a blizzard outside.” Jump looked at me in confusion. “Why was there a blizzard? Did the weather team let a storm loose?” I blinked at her in confusion a couple times. “Uh... what?” She sighed. “Don’t you have Pegasi where you’re from?” I facepalmed and let out a groan. “This is going to take a while.....”