//------------------------------// // January White // Story: Yearbook January // by Regidar //------------------------------// January White January 24th, Morning Today is the last day of my voyage on the Dawn Treader. It’s been a rather interesting journey, to say the least; especially when the cook got sick. Oh, I hope he’s alright. The ship’s doctor said he would be, but... I can’t help to think of what could have happened. We did see some dolphins on the way up, and that comforted me. They’re such playful, happy animals, even if they do have a certain... dark side to them. What animal doesn’t, though? Nature must be taken in its joys as well as its rage. From the most cuddly bunnies to the most loathsome centipedes, it is a delicate balance which deserves love, occasional... trimmings, and above all, the right to play its course. Fluttershy set down her notebook, and placed the quill back in its inkwell. Casting her gaze sideways, she watched as the sea of clouds that spilled outside the porthole in her bunk let only a few rays of morning sunlight spill into her cabin. Today was, indeed, her last day on the ship. Fluttershy stared around at her cabin again, knowing how much she'd long for its hammock and sturdy framework in the coming months. She’d miss not only the simple yet accommodating cabins, but the friendly, industrious shipmates, the sick cook, the cheery doctor, and indeed, everypony aboard. Still, there were bigger things that called her, and who was she to shy away from that? Well... She wasn’t that pony anymore, though; once upon a time, Fluttershy would have hidden under her bed at the mere mention of the windswept northern plains of the Eqqus Arctic regions. Now, however, she felt like a regular Daring Do— well, less so since she had actually met her, but nonetheless, this was an adventure into a potentially hazardous area for an extended period of time. It would still take her courage. Fluttershy slid from her chair, onto her hooves, and walked carefully over to the trunk in which her saddlebags were laying, safe and snug. She looked at the double sacks, strapped together with sturdy rope of the best weaving she could find; it was a little known fact that Rarity could also work wonders with giant spider silk to make some of the most beautiful and durable rope on this side of Eqqus. She opened the left saddlebag to check to see if everything was in place: three canteens of water, two sacks of a hardy, arctic grain, and a stack of notebooks and quills, under which she knew were a few inkwells full of freeze-proof ink (enchanted by Twilight herself!) safely separated from everything else by a secret compartment. Twilight and Rarity together had collaborated on this piece of wilderness-survival artwork, and Fluttershy could safely say that it had come out pretty darn good. Closing the saddlebag carefully, she changed her attention to the right bag. Inside, there were many things— most of them assorted flowers and small plants carefully separated so that they would not spill over and intermingle. Small coniferous bushes and ferns surrounded by star-petaled ice blue flowers showed the diversity in the fauna contained in this saddlebag. There were, however, more things stowed away here. Carefully pressing a flower to the side, Fluttershy peered into another part of the bag to take note of the things there. The first was an apple— but not just any apple; this was an apple that had a bright white sheen to it, so white it was almost blue, approaching the color of the ice blue flowers nearby. Applejack had given it to her just days before the trip. Fluttershy grinned as she carefully turned the apple over, having no doubt that it would survive the cold weather. Right next to it lay a dog eared copy of “Daring Do: The Moon and Arctica”. This was a copy that had been owned by Rainbow Dash herself, and with some tears, had been given to her the night before Fluttershy had set off to begin her voyage on the Dawn Treader. Fluttershy’s grin changed to a soft smile at this; she had read through it on the trip over, and in addition to being a fabulous read, also held quite a few knowledgeable tricks and tips about surviving the planes of Arctica. And fighting off yeti, Fluttershy noted to herself, and shrank down slightly. Despite her courage having tripled, if not quadrupled, in her time spent with her friends, the prospect of having to face down a yeti all by herself still gave her the shivers. “Well, there’s a chance that I might not have to face one at all,” Fluttershy murmured to herself, in a somewhat shaky voice. “Talking to yourself? That’s the first sign of madness, you know,” came a heavy male voice from the door of her cabin. Fluttershy turned around with a start, wings flaring in surprise. “O-oh! I’m so sorry, you surprised me...” The voice, which turned out to belong to the captain, burst out laughing. The captain was a robust pony, thickly muscled, and sporting a rather lush, full curly beard. He grinned, his eyes showing years of experience in the wrinkles around them. He was not a particularly old pony, maybe forty at most, but the years spent traveling around the known and unknown lands, islands, and seas of Eqqus had aged him in a wonderful way. “Sorry about that, sweetheart.” The captain had an odd accent in his voice, leading Fluttershy to believe that he had come from the northern lands above the crystal empire; even after ages of being away from home, mixed with a thousand different crews and a hundred different accents, he had managed to cling to his own. “Just figured that I’d come and give ya a proper sendoff, ya know? Two months out at sea with somepony makes it a bit hard to let go of ‘em, ya see.” “Oh, I understand,” Fluttershy said, giving him a warm smile. “It’s been quite an adventure on board with you and the crew as well. I’ll be sad to leave.” “Hehe,” the captain said, his wizened grin gracing his bearded face. “I remember the first day that we set out into the Tempest Tides. Ya looked so scared, like the ship was gonna go down right under ya!” The captain flung his head back and laughed as he stomped on the floor of the boat. “But this ol’ thing has held up against stronger things than a little tropical storm; we got on through all right.” “Oh, yes,” Fluttershy said, blushing faintly. “That was rather scary...” “First storms always are,” the captain said, giving her an encouraging grin. “Why, I remember my own first! Terrible gale that just sprung from the Seashell Inlets out of nowhere. But we pulled on through, yielded the sails, and...” the captain let loose another loud, bellowing laugh. “Well, the ship and I are still here today, aren’t we?” Fluttershy laughed softly along with the captain’s intense, echoing laughs. After a moment, she stopped, and cleared her throat. “Um... does this mean we’re stationed?” The captain cocked his head, and in turn, a bushy eyebrow. “Well, any moment we should be—” The stallion was cut short as the ship jolted to a sudden halt, throwing fluttershy slightly off balance. A loud grinding, crunching, scraping noise, as if somepony had thrown a large ice sculpture under the wheels of a speeding train, resonated throughout the ship. “Damn newfolk,” the captain grumbled. “Don’t know aft from starboard... well, Fluttershy, best of luck in your adventure!” The captain gave her one last grin, and then sprinted off to deal with the issue. “I said go to port! Yes, I know where port is! You little...” Fluttershy giggled despite herself, and turned away from the doorway, making it back to the only things she had left to attend to. Sighing as she reached her desk, she could see that the very sudden stopping had thrown her inkwell to the floor, where it had smashed. Stepping around the pool of ink and broken glass, she took the quill from where it rested in her journal, and shortly after, took her journal. Rushing to her trunk, she deposited those into her left saddlebag, and grabbed a little rag from near her wash bucket to clean up the ink mess. “One last thing...” Fluttershy said right after dropping the glass-coated, ink stained rag back into the bucket. Trotting swiftly to her trunk, she used her hooves to lift out a well-needed garment. Rarity, being the element of generosity that she was, had gone all out when she had heard that Fluttershy was heading off to the frozen plains of the arctic. The parka, which the pegasus now held in her hooves, was a pristine snow white for camouflage, and was coated with the softest, most insulating wool-silk hybrid Rarity could weave. Pockets and zippers lined the outside, but they were skillfully woven and sewn into the warm coat so that one could hardly tell they were even there. There were even pockets for her wings to slide into! Matching stockings and snowshoes lay at the bottom of the trunk, just waiting for Fluttershy to put them on. Sliding into these garments, Fluttershy struggled a bit with her hooves to get them through the stockings correctly, but after a few moments, was feeling nice and snug in the arctic clothes. Forgoing the snowshoes until they would be of use, she tucked them neatly away in her left saddlebag. Using her wings to lift up said saddlebag, she slid it neatly onto her back, nestling it in between and around her wings carefully. Looking around her cabin one last time, Fluttershy nodded her head in a solemn farewell to her home of the past two months. Outside, the first thing that hit her was the brightness. The light from the sun (which showed a testament to Princess Celestia’s power, for it was able to shine all the way over here in the great north) reflected off of the ice sheets in an almost blinding way. The sky above her was a bright, pastel blue, clear as a looking glass. Turning her head, she could see the clouds from earlier advancing from the southeast. Walking towards the edge of the boat, she looked off the side, down into the water. Small waves surrounded the boat in the grey ice water, and just feet away from them were the frost-glazed shores of Arctica. Walking towards the ramp that would lead her down to the land, she got her first blast of the wind chill. Shivering as the biting wind rolled over her, her exposed face was not ready for the sudden cold. Closing her eyes as a way of bracing herself, she stumbled, leaning against the railing of the boat’s side. Recovering quickly, Fluttershy trotted on her way, approaching the ramp. As she did so, she heard a familiar voice call out to her in that odd accent. “Oi! Fluttershy!” Turning back, she saw the captain, but he was not alone. Gathered there was the whole crew, waving and smiling back at her; even the sick cook was feebly waving his hoof in farewell. Fluttershy blinked, and smiled shakily. A small tear of joy leaked from her eye, and she called back to them. “Thank you so much! The voyage was amazing!” “Goodbye, Fluttershy!” they all called back in unison. Fluttershy gave them a final smile, then turned, heading down towards the cold plains of Arctica. *** Her first hoofstep onto the cold was exhilarating. Fluttershy may have been a meek pony, but she was slowly growing to courage, and this first hoofbeat on a new land, on a new snow, took her breath away. Glancing all around her, mane slipping slightly from its rucked place inside her parka hood, she took a good few moments to soak up the surroundings. Trees tipped with ice like the frosted roofs of a Sugarcube Corner Gingerbread house lay to her north, blinding white plains lay to her southwest, and to the northeast, brilliant hills were a blanket that expanded over the landscape. Of course, behind her to the southeast was the ocean, but looking out after the boat as it traveled away, Fluttershy could see the beautiful grey-and-blue water full of ice chunks and little waves for the first time in its true glory. The midmorning sun sent beautiful arcs of light off the clear, cold sea. She was not there to observe the sea, however, and pulled herself away from the glorious sight. Turning to face the woods, she caught a glimpse of several brown pony-esque creatures. Aha! “Hello,” she called out softly, then cleared her throat and called out a bit loud. “Hello?” The creatures, even though they were a good three hundred yards away at least, perked up and cantered over to Fluttershy. As they got closer, Fluttershy began to recognize them. They were reindeer, a relative to the deer that had built their society in the forests of Equestria. Fluttershy herself knew a coven of them that lived in the Everfree Forest just a ten minutes walk way from her home, past a large lake and a waterfall. “So you must be the one who they foretold was coming,” the first one said, a large reindeer with enormous antlers. “Welcome to Arctica, little pony.” “Oh, thank you,” Fluttershy said, smiling kindly at them. “Yes, I was the one that was... foretold?” “Yes,” the reindeer said simply, and the two who had accompanied him (does of a slightly smaller size) nodded in agreement. Fluttershy nodded back. “Well, I am her then.” “I trust you wish to be shown where you are to be staying, then,” the reindeer stag continued. “Follow us.” The three of them turned on their hooves, and began to leap away in an odd half-gallop, half bounding motion towards the southwestern plains. Fluttershy extracted her wings from the pockets in her parka, and took flight after them, shooting into the cold northern air. As they traveled, Fluttershy kept relatively close to the ground, so she could best see where her guides were taking her. They were fast, however, so she found herself slowly climbing higher in order to keep a decent pace. After ten minutes or so of traveling, they reached a field of such stunning beauty that Fluttershy almost fell out of the sky. Stretched out, for at least a mile ahead of them, were hundred of thousands of brilliant ice blue arctic roses; they were in similar coloration to the flowers that Fluttershy contained in her pack, but these were of a more natural, somewhat lighter blue, almost a grayish white, perfect for blending into the landscape. The pegasus dropped in altitude, and slowed down, drifting over the roses and gazing at them in stunned awe. The reindeer ignored these flowers, and instead continued to bound through them. Fluttershy gasped as the deer charged thoughtlessly into the field of flowers, but as she followed them and inspected their hoofprints, she found that not a single blossom had been harmed. After that, as Fluttershy flew alongside them, she marveled at the grace the reindeer put with each hoofbeat. Soon, they left the field behind, and were once again traveling over the frozen ice fields of the land. The ice here seemed to be thicker than where it was in the north, and if she cast a glance directly southward, she could see that large sea cliffs were pouring into the ocean, and a few rivers fed into it in other places. Arctica continued in a lovely curve around the seascape, creating a sort of half-moon bay with giant mountains of ice and snow stretching up on the farthest side of the southern bay shore. As they little group continued, they passes ravines, large ice boulders, small little groves of arctic pine trees, and huddled groups of penguins. As they passed the polar birds, they chattered in a fast, almost inane way in their strange chirping language, and giggled as the reindeer leapt past them. Fluttershy shrank slightly; even if it was directed at her, she did not like the idea of being judged by penguins she didn’t even know. It was another breathless half-hour through the arctic landscape before they reached the destination the reindeer and Fluttershy had set out for. Cresting over a snowy hill, the reindeer stopped suddenly, and Fluttershy landed awkwardly next to them. The feathers of her wings were covered in a light frost, making it hard for her to fly accurately. She extended one and shook it slightly to free it of said frost, and then the other, before quickly sliding them back into their little pockets, sighing slightly as they began to warm once more. “It is there,” the stag said. Fluttershy looked over towards where the reindeer had gestured his head, and saw on the plane before her a small wooden cabin. “Thank you...” “Watch out for The Other. We are not sure of its motives.” Fluttershy turned her head back to address the reindeer. “Who is—” They were gone. Fluttershy stared back at the house, which had a small gathering of penguins nearby. Sighing, she took flight once more, and approached the cabin swiftly. Landing underneath the overhang that covered the porch, Fluttershy thought of the reindeer. Sure, deer all over the lands of Eqqus were known for being cryptic, superstitious, and shamanistic, but something in the tones of these reindeer when they talked about “The Other”... Fluttershy brushed the snow and ice from the only table that sat on the porch. Debating whether or not she should sit down, the copious amount of cold weather products daunted her. Looking out at the vast landscape before her, it set another wonderment-inspired shiver through her. She was situated at the head of a shallow glacial valley, one that snaked a long way down towards the ocean, with gradual, snowed hills hugging either side. The sun was still bearing down overhead, but she knew that it would set early. Celestia did not have much power up here, and could only keep it sustained for part of the day in the winters when her powers waned and her sister’s grew. The entire land was a January White. Turning away, she put a hoof against the door of her cabin, and pushed it open.