13 - Flashback: Fires of Friendship
The fire burned bright.
The flames illuminated the cave in a soft amber glow, licking around a heart-shaped flux of magic suspended up high by the ceiling of the underground space. It was a lifeline to those taking shelter within, which included hundreds of ponies. Thousands more remained outside, some in makeshift shelters and tents, while others had been recently given refuge in the city of Pegasolpolis as it sat high above the cave and the mountain it resided on.
Mount Canterhorn, as coined by Clover the Clever.
The refuges were ponies of all walks of life. Earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi. Even some thestrals were among them in the cloud city, despite the limited numbers the pegasus sub-type possessed. Non-pegasi sheltering in the cloud-based settlement were being sustained by unicorn magics allowing them the ability to walk on cloud as the pegasi could, certainly lessening the strain on the surface. Though they couldn’t take them all, filled to capacity and them some after agreeing to take in those who needed it the most. The sick and helpless, the old and young, those unlikely to survive in the freezing snow leftover by the late wendigos.
Beasts that had likewise been destroyed by the enigmatic magic protecting them now.
It was still so fresh in their minds, and yet equally mysterious and confusing. They had all fled across the ocean, landing in this new continent that had barely been mapped. Through either sheet coincidence or the hooves of fate itself, all three factions had chosen to seek refuge by Mount Canterhorn as the snow followed. All three sides were all but ready to fight one another, consumed by petty squabbles over who had the rights to the land around them.
Their squabbling had almost cost them dearly, the cold creeping in while they were distracted and very nearly ending their lives as the wendigos closed in.
Then the fire came, the wendigos were destroyed and their species saved. All because three little ponies managed to put their differences aside and decide to face their deaths with bravery and friendship.
It saved them all.
It was something Queen Platinum played over again and again in her head as she watched over the camp below the cave with tired eyes. She held some of the blame for what almost occurred, so prideful when she met the other leaders in the cave that she couldn’t see the more pressing concern. Too much pride…
She had to be better.
The unicorn sighed, tightening her royal purple cloak as the chill in the air nipped at her fur. Her eyes glanced up at Pegasopolis, a little envious that the pegasi had been able to move their own home to this new land of Equestria whereas the earth ponies and unicorns had been forced to abandon theirs.
At least it gave them a head start.
Equestria… The named seemed appropriate for a newly united race of equines, the decision had been the first thing they could agree on in years.
But there was still so much to work out…
“You should come inside, the fire of the heart will warm you,” Starswirl the Bearded noted as he walked up beside the Queen. “Equestria needs its Queen.”
“Does it?” she questioned. “I nearly doomed us. Do I deserve the crown?”
“You have the most experience ruling as a monarch. Hurricane is more military-minded, Pudding Head is… Well, Pudding Head. They admitted this themselves.”
“Right. And now Hurricane commands the armed forces of all three races and Pudding Head still remains Pudding Head.”
“I think ‘morale officer’ were his precise words.”
“What even is that?”
“I wouldn’t question it. He seems an odd one that pony.”
“Indeed. I should think up a more suitable position and higher stature, else the earth ponies might think we’ve given them the rough end of the deal. I’m still shocked they even chose to let my reign continue, or begin again as it is, given our prior conflict.”
“Our young friends were very persuasive,” Starswirl said with pride in his voice. “My student has done well, I think. He and his new friends, they’ll make excellent advisers in your new court.”
“Yet even now their fire begins to fade.”
“The physical flame, yes,” the wizard confirmed. “But not the spark ignited between them. I can’t say I understand this new magic, but it is powerful. I fully intend to study it while exploring this new land. I can think of a few ponies that may be of assistance. They will be the pillars upon which this ‘Equestria’ is built.”
“I like it. ‘The Pillars of Equestria’,” Clover the Clever remarked from behind them, joining his Queen and Mentor by the edge of the rockface. “You’ll have to introduce me.”
“I will when I’ve met them myself. But each has a reputation of their own from their respective tribes. A dragon tamer. A healer…”
“Sounds like you have things in hoof,” Platinum remarked. “And while you gallop around Equestria mapping it out and studying every inch, I have to try and built a country once the snow clears.”
“We have to try and build a country. You might be the first Queen of Equestria, your Majesty, but you still have your pegasus and earth pony counterparts to call upon,” Clover pointed out. “I’ve spoken with Hurricane. He plans to use Pegasopolis to go around the area and try and clear the snow faster. You know, I have some ideas about constructing a more large-scale weather control device…”
“Ambitious,” Starswirl stated. “But focus on the immediate tasks for now, Clover.”
“Right. Well, they also want to rename it, seeing as it’s a new start and all. No idea what to.”
“Maybe ‘Pegasus Land’,” Platinum remarked sarcastically.
“Cloudsdale, actually,” Hurricane himself deadpanned, exiting the cave alongside former Chancellor Pudding Head. “I’ll remain with you and help train this new ‘EUP’ idea of ours. Going to take some time to get the recruits to work together, but I’m used to knocking some heads until they get the idea.”
“Also, totally going to make a new town earth pony style, but with all races welcome to help!” Pudding Head declared. “Manehatten, I think. It’s going to be the most advanced city in Equestria someday, just watch!”
Hurricane snorted. “Earth pony designed? Advanced? Right.”
“Hey!”
“Let’s not go down this route again,” Starswirl interrupted an argument in the making. “That leaves us with two settlements then, Cloudsdale and Manehatten. What of the unicorns?”
“This mountain will do, I think we’d be comfortable here,” she decided. “Hm… Canterlot.”
“Sounds good to me. Though I think one more settlement should be included in these little plans of ours,” Clover added. “A capital city. One built using all three races and their design aesthetics.”
“Make sense. We can split our people accordingly, get them to each sight where construction can begin. I’ll arrange an escort detail for each effort,” General Hurricane said. “But where would this capital be? Seems a good place to start with our colonisation plans.”
“Start? You have Cloudsdale already!” Pudding Head moaned.
“We cheated,” Hurricane quipped. “But that doesn’t answer my question.”
“There was a forest a short distance from here. We passed it, if you recall,” Starswirl recounted. “The Everfree. A small forest to be sure, but it would be good for lumber.”
“The City of Everfree. A place to stand the test of time,” Platinum agreed. “Alright. It is decided.”
Starswirl nodded. “So it is. My friends, these are truly momentous times in our history. With my student’s fire acting as our hearth, warming our hearts, we go forth in this new endeavour.”
“Then let the event of our unification always be remembered,” Hurricane declared. “Let it be a day celebrated through song.”
“And parties!” Pudding Head added. “Presents!”
“The details are trivial. But this… Hearth’s Warming’s most important thing is remembrance,” Platinum stated.
Clover looked away from the others, his stare directed at the western horizon. “What we were, what we lost. And why we’re still here.”
“Friendship, yes,” Platinum said with a hum. “If only we all allowed ourselves the chance to learn that lesson.”
“Those fools in Unicornia made their choice. If they live, they will forge their own path,” Starswirl reassured her. “But our future is here, and it has begun.”
As he spoke those words, far below amongst the makeshift shelters and tents, two fillies skulked through the crowds of ponies as carefully as they could. One was extremely young, the other seemed to be in her early teens as she kept her younger sister close. They each wore dirtied cloaks over their back, both for warmth and to hide their secret…
They watched as the others huddled for warmth, many around hastily erected cooking fires. Every time they felt the heat, they were reminded of what they once had.
A home of stone brick lit by candles with their own cooking fire lit as their mother made their favourite meals. They hadn’t had much, not so much as a book for entertainment to be found, such things being a luxury few could afford. But they had each other, and their mother had been as beautiful as she was powerful. She made stories of her own, ones the sisters would listen to every night before sleep claimed them.
And then the cold had come, she had told them to run as the monsters came. Her power was great, but there were so many of them, the elements themselves at their command.
She hadn’t followed as she promised.
So the sisters had to continue on, hiding their closely guarded secret as their mother had always instructed. After all, ponies had always fought what was different, why should it be different with them?
But now they were working together, so maybe…?
No, the elder had to shake such thoughts from her head. She had to protect her little sister, she promised their mother. She had to be the adult now.
But she was scared. Even if she had to hide it. She wanted her mother, and she wanted to go home.
But home was lost to them now. They had made it to the shore, stowed away on those wooden ships as they’d made the crossing. Those ships had since been broken down, many of the shelters around them were made from their remains.
There was talk of making a new home. Maybe the sisters would go along with them. Perhaps the elder could find work in a tavern? When taverns existed again, at least. Something to let them eat…
“Tia…?” the younger asked, the young filly looking up at Celestia with shimmering eyes and a quivering lip. “I’m cold…”
“I know, Lulu…” Celestia told Luna, brushing her pink mane out of her eyes before patting her sister’s cyan one in comfort. “We’ll ask one of the nice ponies around us if we can join them by the fire, alright.”
Luna sniffed. “O-okay… Think Mama will be here somewhere…?”
Celestia hesitated, a pit rising in her stomach. “I… don’t know. Let’s get somewhere warm first, okay?”
“Okay…”
They started to move again, the elder of the two secret alicorns looking around for the most ideal ponies she could think to ask based on initial impressions. Who would consider it? Who would pose a threat? She had to protect her sister…
“Tia?” she then asked again timidly. “You will never leave me, right?”
“Never,” she replied, nuzzling the top of her head. “Come on…”
And so the two sisters went, eventually going on to find a nice earth pony couple all too happy to let two children share their fire.
And yet, even as the ponies planned their future and where to build their homes, little did they know that there already existed beings who existed beneath the surface of Equestria. And as they planned their future, already the seeds of it were being sown.
After all, on a hill a short distance from the campsite, an equine shaped creature watched as her dragon-like pupils surveyed the area with curiosity. Several more chitinous beings joined her, adorned in armour that did little to cover the holes dotted around their forms.
“How curious…” Queen Imperatrix mused. “Find out what you can.”
The changeling drones nodded, fire surrounding their forms and replacing them with that of simple dirtied earth ponies. They started to trot down towards the camp as the Changeling Queen watched, humming in contemplation.
On that first day of Hearth’s Warming, the future was being written and decided upon long before any could ever realise it…
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Nice little lore chapter of what was essentially the first Hearth’s Warming. Hope you have a Merry Christmas!
Wow... What a great way to shine the light on Equestria's 1st Hearth's Warming was like
this is vary interesting.
Are you going to continue this story?
Also, does this take place after what would be season 9 as a whole, in terms of the timeline, and are you going to make interlude stories involving any of the villains of Equestria and the Changeling hives that attack AFTER the first story arc of Change?
Plus, I was thinking that maybe you could have Grogar as Immortalis' father, hence why her mother decided to corrupt her daughter like that after Grogar's defeat, though in this story she and her husband, the TRUE Grogar returns as the true main antagonists. Just something that I thought you could put into this story later on.
10075898
Yes it will continue. This takes place decades after season 9 would have done, though events would not have played out like season 9 anyway.
And I already have the storyline planned out, I know where this is going, and I can tell you Grogar is not a factor in any way. Immortalis' father was just a drone, the crazy all came from her mother.
So far, this has been good.
I haven’t finished reading the second one yet and I see this will be the last one but I would appreciate a end to this and thanks for helping to keep my mind entertained as it isn’t easy to find good stories here