Celestia vehemently watched the horizon for any signs of the pegasus squadron. They had left hours ago, and she had begun to fear the worst. They were her best pegasi, but they were not infallible. They had better get back here soon, she thought as she watched the billowing clouds over the mountains.
---
A light blue pegasus lay in a pile of snow, his body contorted by his collision with the ground. The landscape before him was a desolate expanse of jagged rocks, drifts of pure white snow, and towering cliffs that stretched into the void above. Dense clouds skirted through the peaks, splitting and deforming as they drifted across the rocks that cut them like knives. A small flurry of snow had begun to pepper Blackbird’s still body. It trembled once, violently, as his natural instincts responded to the cold around him. Soon after, his eyes cracked open. He was alive, but only just.
As he came to his senses he slowly realized the severity of his situation. Around him, the world was growing ever more hostile, and his mind was beginning to realize how much pain his body was truly in. He tried to move, but as his body shifted a surge of exquisite pain flared from his wing. His mouth opened to scream in pain, but it had stolen his breath as well. He let his head fall back into the snow as he struggled to take in air.
Several minutes later, once his breathing was bearable, he slowly arched his neck to assess the damage the bullet had done to his wing. Its mangled form lay in a crimson crater of blood by his side. Near the base, where the bullet had struck, a small gaping hole was oozing.
A loud howl of wind made him shiver. He looked to the darkening clouds above him as they began to unleash their payload. The small flurry of snow was rapidly growing in intensity, it would only be a matter of minutes before it would cover his body. I need to get somewhere safe, Blackbird thought as he tried to bring himself to his hooves. The pain, however, threw him back to the ground, his mind had become his enemy. Come on, he thought to himself as he struggled to stand once more in the steadily growing drift of snow. He let out a groan as his body refused to cooperate. He lifted his head and painfully surveyed the cliffs through the haze. In the distance stood a small alcove in the side of a cliff, just large enough for a pony to seek refuge from the storm.
Blackbird dug his hoof in the snow before him and painfully dragged his body toward the opening. Inch by inch, he struggled against the blizzard, trying to get to the one place that might save his life. The snow steadily thickened around him as he slowly slid across its agonizingly cold surface. Drifts began to form, creating small ridges he was forced to ascend. With each breath he took he felt every inch of his body twinge in pain. He tried to ignore it, to push aside that mental voice that told him to give up and to breathe his last. The only thing that could save him lay just beyond the veil of white that laughed at his efforts to save himself from the elements. Each movement he made slowly drained him of the small reserves of energy he had left. The wind that whipped his face stung like hornets, and the sleet that rode on its back assaulted his wound.
With one last burst of energy Blackbird dragged himself over a drift and let himself slide onto the rough rocky ground of the cave. A wave of relief washed over him as he felt the hard stone beneath him. The sharp gravel cut into his skin but Blackbird barely noticed. He had made it, his mind relishing in his small victory over the elements. The world began to blur and fade as he began to lose consciousness. His wounds were slowly draining him from the inside out. Violently he shook his head, trying to stay firmly planted in reality, but this fate was inevitable.
Painfully he unbuttoned his vest and gently removed it from his body, carefully avoiding his wing in the process. The remnants of the camera spilled out onto the ground into a pile. What happened to shock-proof, he thought to himself wryly as he looked at the cracked lens. Focus! That is of little concern, I need to stop the bleeding, he thought to himself as he looked over the pile of camera parts. But how?’
The solution was simple, but it took his weary mind several minutes to build a plan. Weakly he undid the neck strap of the camera and fashioned a loop around his wing. Taking a deep breath Blackbird took the loose end of the strap in his mouth and snapped his head back.
A wave of indescribable pain coursed through his body as the strap cinched over the wound. The immense pain that attacked his mind began forcing reality out. The bleeding slowed considerably, but his body was violently shaking, Blackbird was beginning to fade. As he slipped toward unconsciousness he could not help but think, I’m not going to wake up again. The frightening thought drifted through his mind as it collapsed into darkness. Moments before passing out, he felt a sense of calmness wash over him. If I die, so be it.
---
“Celestia,” the pegasus said as he bowed at the princess’s hooves.
“Yes?” the princess asked as she rose from her throne. “Do you have news of the observer?”
“We discovered a stallion flying in the upper limits of the atmosphere in the shadow zone.”
Celestia cocked her eyebrow. “That region is off limits, how did he get past the watchtowers?”
“The mixture of his light blue coat, incredible speed, and high altitude made him difficult to tail. Lucky for us, he dipped into the denser air over the mountains where I tailed him until I could get a clear shot.”
“Is he dead?” Celestia asked, a sense of worry in her voice.
“I shot him in the wing, he crashed into the mountainside, and a massive blizzard was building over the range.”
Celestia trotted to the balcony and looked toward the mountains. A dark swirling haze of clouds surrounded them. Only the highest peaks pierced the blanket of clouds, defiantly shredding the oncoming storm with their summits. “That is all well and good, but you didn’t answer my question, so I will ask it again. Is the stallion dead.”
“Three times over your highness,” the stallion said as he trotted to her side and watched the blizzard grow in the distance. The mass of clouds began to flicker with lightning, signaling the start of a violent storm. “If the collision didn’t kill him, the blood loss would. And if that didn’t, then the blizzard would.”
“So another way to answer my question is, ‘I did not check but I think so’.” Celestia said, her voice growing ever more irritated at the ambiguous answer.
“Y-Yes, your highness.”
“You do realize that he might have been working with Luna, don’t you?” Her voice becoming condescending.
“Yes…” the stallion said, his voice tapering off in uncertainty.
“And that Luna is very intelligent.”
“Yes of course…”
“And that she will stop at nothing to dethrone me and take my crown,” Celestia said, her anger building.
The stallion began to step backward as Celestia sternly met his gaze.
“Your highness--” The stallion started, but Celestia cut him off.
“Either you make sure he’s dead,” She said as she pressed her forehead against his. “Or I will make sure you are.”
“Understood,” the pegasus said as he nervously swallowed. “I will return when I finish the mission.”
“Good, bring back evidence when you kill him,” Celestia said as she gestured for him to alight. “It seems your reports are… lacking conclusive information.”
The stallion saluted, his hoof nearly colliding with his forehead. “As you wish,” he said before galloping off of the balcony and taking to the air. As he exited the subsonic zone, he swiveled in his wings and with a powerful downthrust, broke through the sound barrier. As he rocketed toward the range his mind slowly replayed the threat just given to him. I’ve got to find that stallion, he thought as he rapidly approached the tops of the dense storm clouds.
Minutes later, he spread his wings and quickly stopped himself at the edge of the storm. The wind around him was turbulent, spiraling in unseen eddies as it fueled the storm’s ferocity. He paused for a minute to watch the storm. It was building at a considerable rate and its internal winds were definitely powerful enough to toss him into one of the peaks. Where are you? he asked the storm as he surveyed its undulating top. It took quite a while, but his eyes finally alighted on the small still area in the clouds, the center. Confidently, he arced into the raging blizzard’s weak spot. Despite the relatively low wind speed, the storm still managed to spin him out of control. He held out for a few seconds before quickly being sucked into the turbulent winds of the storm.
The violent air tossed him carelessly through the clouds, destroying the mental map in his head. He tried to watch for the ground as he was spun head over hooves through the dark haze, but his mind was almost immediately distorted by the unending sea of gray and snow. Within seconds his sense of direction was all but destroyed, a few times he tried to escape the storm, but he only succeeded in further confusing himself and destroying any sense of direction.
It quickly became apparent that he was helpless and he pulled his wings to his body. Maybe I can clear my head on the ground, he thought as he careened downward into the vast expanse below. Watching carefully for any sign of land the pegasus prepared himself for a hard touchdown. Seconds passed and nothing happened, his body was still suspended in the air by the updrafts in storm. Seconds turned into minutes, but still no sign of the ground. Then it came.
The stallion smashed into the snowy ground and skidded to a stop, his body intentionally limp in his preparation for a crash. The collision had nearly knocked him senseless, but he vehemently held onto reality. Dazed, he rose to his hooves, but the dizziness and confusion made him stumble to the ground. As he lay in the snow, he tried to recognize his location, but he could identify nothing in the raging blizzard. This isn’t good. He thought as his mind slowly started to comprehend the situation. I can try and fly back to the castle…. the stallion paused, then violently shook his head. No, no I can’t do that. Celestia will kill me… No, I-I have to find that stallion. Painfully, he lifted himself his hooves and quickly surveyed his surroundings, through the blizzard he could barely make out a large grey mass that rose into the sky. Slowly he walked to the large cliff that stretched into the horizon, pushing through the storm that howled around him.
He reached the cliff after several agonizing seconds of movement and leaned against the cold rock wall.The cliff offered some protection from the driving wind, but his hooves were already beginning to go numb. If I stay here much longer I’ll freeze to death. I should wait until this storm dies down before I sleep; I don’t want to die out here, the stallion thought as he rubbed his hooves, trying to massage feeling back into his extremities.
He craned his neck into the blizzard, trying to find a better spot to rest. There, in the distance, was a small overhanging rock. Beneath the alcove was a patch of bare ground. There, he thought as he painfully limped toward the alcove. The cliff dug into his coat, the pain and his desire for shelter keeping him awake as he trudged forward until he was underneath the stony protrusion. When he arrived he immediately dropped to the ground and curled himself into a tight ball. His attempt to conserve the little warmth he had left in his body was his only chance for survival. Luckily, that small ember successfully kept him from freezing to death in the ever building storm. He yawned, his mind slowly drifting into rest. I’m not supposed to sleep in the cold, but this is only a quick nap, he thought, his mind attempting to rationalize his body’s desire to sleep forever. He laid his head down and as his eyes began to droop, he slowly drifted off to sleep.
---
In his sleep, Blackbird rolled to his side and onto his mangled wing. Pain coursed through his body, tearing him from his rest. The pain from the crash still lingered, but it was slowly being overpowered by fear. Questions in his disgruntled mind began to pile up. How long have I been out? he thought as he craned his neck to see out the front of the cave. The storm continued to ravage the landscape outside, blanketing it in choking layers of ice and snow. The blizzard is still raging, and I’m not dead, I must not have been asleep for long. A chill ran down his back as he realized his condition, the piercing cold had numbed his extremities and was slowly encroaching on his heart. He parted the fur on his leg to reveal his purpling skin; his legs were numb to the knees . Not good, he thought as he tried to stand. The pain, once more, echoed through his body and threw him back to the ground. Why won’t nature just let me die in my sleep? He thought as he laid his head back to the ground. The world seemed to be torturing him. He started to close his eyes, not knowing if he would ever open them again.
Just as his eyelids were almost shut, he noticed something on the wall of the cave. It was a simple chalk line. Intrigued, his eyes followed its bends and junctions that ran along the wall. Slowly, he realized that it was a massive compilation of images, the meaning of which was unmistakable. It was a massive depiction of the events of the first Hearth Warming’s Eve. His mind, intrigued by the images, slowly pulled away from the temptation of sleep. In just a few seconds, Blackbird was wide awake, his mind racing with questions about the images. Was this the very cave? he thought. His mind began to imagine the ponies of the three kingdoms before him, bickering among themselves over their territory. Was this where it all happened? The depiction of the creation of Equestria was awe-inspiring, and it brought a new sense of determination.
Blackbird looked back to his shattered camera. If only I could document this place, maybe the citizens would begin to remember how the world used to work, he thought. His eyes remained glued to the creation, transfixed by its appearance.
Although Blackbird’s mind was awake, his body was beginning to drift out of reality. As he studied the wall’s murals; he felt the last reserves of his energy slowly beginning to fade away. He struggled to hold his head up, dying to inspect the images further, but it finally collapsed too. As he lay on the cold rocks of the cave floor slowly dying, Blackbird felt his body being moved. Unsure whether he was delusional or not he ignored the feeling and let his eyes close.