• Published 27th Apr 2013
  • 3,669 Views, 102 Comments

The Frozen North - GjallarFox



The Frozen North. A beautiful yet unforgiving place. The perfect place to share warmth.

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Bloom (Night)

Bloom (Night)

It was an awe-inspiring sight. The mass bloom of thousands of crystal flowers just blew me away like a leaf in a storm. Nature had once again shown its beauty, using its own prowess in magic to bring about a faux-spring to an otherwise permanently winter environment. I could feel the wild magic in my wings, tickling my feathers just enough to be felt. I simply sat there with the only thing that I found more beautiful than the meadow we sat in. It was peaceful. It was perfect.

New flowers had stopped appearing, the intertwined lavender and yellow ones having been the last to bloom. I held my gaze upon them, trying to interpret the obvious sign before us. I wondered if it was just coincidence that made those two flowers intertwine, or if some omniscient force was showing us a metaphor of us. Either way, it was nothing short of breathtaking, and I couldn't move, though I noticed that our shadows were growing exponentially longer with each passing minute.

"We should set up camp here for the night," Twilight whispered, not wanting to disturb the peace with the sound of her voice. "This place isn't quite finished."

"How could it get better than this?" I asked incredulously. I picked my head up, looking at her as if she'd lost her mind.

"You'll see, Love," she answered cryptically.

I didn't want to spoil the surprise. She'd proven to have wonderful surprises, and I didn't want to spoil it. That would have been a shame... So I dropped it.

She stood abruptly, my wing trying subconsciously to keep her next to me. As she stretched out, the sun sunk closer and closer to the horizon before us. I stood up just moments later, stretching my own legs that protested the movement. An especially cold breeze swooped down from the mountain behind us, it's icy blades slipping beneath my feathers and sending uncomfortable sensations through my spine. I looked towards the sunset again, observing that it was just barely half an optical inch from the perfectly level horizon, which was defined clearly by the contrast of the sun's golden glow against the blinding white that bleached everything but the crystal flowers.

I moved over to where Twilight had set up the tent with her magic, the bright red sticking out sorely against the snow. With a faint 'pop' and the crunch of snow, a bundle of logs had appeared from seemingly nowhere, due to Twilight's magic. Next to her, a scroll that had once housed meters upon meters of ink was now three-tenths blank. I didn't understand how the magic worked, but somehow it did, so I didn't question it. All I really cared about was that it expressed her ingenuity in a way that I thought the word 'attractive' would be an understatement for. It made me wonder what other wonders she could perform, and just how far she could go. Her future, which I saw a lot of myself in when I imagined it, was brighter than the sun. I smiled at the prospect of sharing that bright future.

The fire roared to life as a magically induced spark caught on the logs and the kindling beneath. Thick warmth exploded outwards, engulfing me in its comfort. I basked in the warmth, still standing, closing my eyes to focus on the sensation.

Twilight cleared the snow with her magic, exposing an area of frozen dirt beneath us, too inhospitable for plantlife. She set a few thick blankets down, just out of range of any chance of catching fire. She nudged my shoulder, and I opened my eyes. We stepped onto the blanket, and lay down together. Her warm body against my side was definitely warmer than the fire was. I like to think that the fire was roaring in jealousy, blazing in anger that she had shown it up that evening. It only roared louder as she curled the far edges of the blanket over us, wrapping us up in a warm bundle. If I had wanted to move away, I certainly couldn't have by that point. The blanket held us together like a burrito, keeping us warm and toasty on the inside, while the blanket took the brunt of the cold. I felt my cheeks flush with color at our proximity. Our entire sides, from shoulder to flank, were pressed tightly together. I felt her heartbeat quickening in her chest through my own ribs. Each beat accelerated like a drumline show, crescendoing to a fever-pitch that blazed in my ears and heart, driving my mind and soul into a sort of insanity that could only be complemented by her own racing mind and heart. I felt nervous but excited, and afraid but happy. My emotions fought like two drum-corps, advancing from end-zone to center-field of the hoofball arena, the active corp forcing the dormant one back with the intensity of their rhythms, only to be repelled at the switching of roles from active to dormant and back again. To make a long story short for myself, the anticipation was an angry bear.

The moon absorbed the last of the daylight, refueling for it's long task of illuminating the night. One by one, it fished stars from the ink, summoning them to join in its vigil. Embers from the flames flew upwards to join their distant friends in the sky. The occasional snaps, crackles, and pops from the fire just a meter and a half away were the loudest sound present, but was buried by the sounds of our breathing. We were in perfect syncopation, my inhales matched precisely by her exhales, her side advancing and retreating in correspondence to mine. The warmth we felt in that blanket made the cold that much more frigid, and our bundle that much more comfy to be in. I debated whether the unicorn directly to my left was insane, having said that there was more magic to happen that night. I debated between her being insane or wrong, and I came to the conclusion that she was insane because she was never wrong. I nuzzled the insane mare that I loved for no reason at all, enjoying every millimeter and second of contact.

She kissed my cheek, her horn beginning to glow almost as brightly as her blush. The fire dimmed to naught more than a flame the size of a hummingbird. The light now gone, I wondered what she was doing.

"Why'd you put the fire down?" I asked curiously.

"We'll need our eyes adjusted to the dark. If we start getting used to it now, we'll be just in time for the show," she whispered back, her tone just ever so slightly sultry. I shivered in delight as her warm breath tickled my ear, and her hoof gently moved to grasp mine. I felt like my heart would burst with the way she was teasing and taunting, coming so close but not touching. But then again, I remembered that I teased her a bit on Topaz Mountain, kissing her nose and hovering when I knew full well how much she wanted to kiss me. I suppose that it was some game of revenge that we had engaged ourselves in. A lover's quarrel to never be tied, always one in the lead, only to be surpassed. I felt like we were an old couple: masters of their own language that no onlooker could decipher.

The dark of the night slowly revealed more of itself. Stars and nebulas once hidden behind the black curtain, now twinkling in the sky. Thousands of the tiny diamonds sparkled, almost arrogantly, showing their beauty to each other. Some were green with envy, others simply blue in sadness, and a few shining an angry red. Every star chose its color, making it known to all who could see them that they were as unique as the ponies who'd first gazed up at them. Every nebula splotched across the ink, bending into soft blankets that smothered the stars they encompassed. I saw a star shoot across the sky, plunging into a nebula before disappearing. I smiled and made a quiet wish.

An hour passed, the time flying away quickly. Both of us were able to see clearly in the dark of the night. The dreamily-lidded half moon watched us as we simply lay there in a warm blanket with the life-draining cold lurking hungrily just a few millimeters from our skin. My eyes had become heavy in that time. The weighted blinds folded down halfway over the windows to my soul, splitting my vision to see two different places. In my half-dream, half-real stupor, I saw us back at home. My home, to be specific. My vision soon shifted entirely to this scene.

We were in my home near the Everfree Forest, enjoying a friendly talk about a few books we both liked over tea. Jovial laughter resounded through the tree, a joke made on a fictional character having just passed between us. I smiled as a tear formed in my eyes. A warm sip of lavender tea soothed my laughter-dried throat, comfortable heat spreading through me. A dull roll of thunder rumbled lowly past, reminding us of the rain outside. I took a cursory glance at the window, seeing a few raindrops clinging to it like leeches. Fresh ones fell from the steel-gray clouds above, tackling the glass with all of their might. But all they did was send a steady roll of percussive taps echoing through the tree.

The entire motion was a blur to me, as it had been a complete surprise. I had been staring out the window, my gaze half-lidded in a rain-induced trance, and the strangest sensation of teasingly light pressure and warmth made itself apparent on my right cheek. My eyes shot open, my mind having instantly caught up with the recent turn of events. I turned to see Twilight looking at me with the most adorable expression of bashful playfulness. Her nose pointed down to the floor, but her eyes stared up at me with a mischievous innocence I'd never seen before in my life. Her cheeks were stained crimson, giving away what she'd just done.

I blinked a few times to wipe the shock from my face. She turned away, thinking she'd overstepped a boundary. I smiled, calculating her field of vision's reaches from where her eyes were pointed. I giggled like a schoolfilly, leaning in quickly and planting a timid kiss upon her blush-stained cheek.

"It's about to start," the almost inaudible whisper boomed in my ear. My memory now shifted back into the vault of my subconscious, I shook my head to clear it. Watching in the grayscale of the crystal meadow, I kept focused for any change in the flowers that shimmered in the night.

The intertwined flowers before us shone brighter than the surrounding flowers, beginning to cast its own light as though it had eaten the sun. Small sparks lazily drifting off the petals. If not for the fact that they did not change direction, I'd have mistaken the specks of light for fireflies. One by one, the flowers of the Malachite Meadow began to light up like torches, casting warm, multicolored splotches of radiance. The warm colored flowers of varying red, oranges, and yellows cast matching fire-like pools of light, the cool blues and greens and purples expelling a contrasting sky-like tone. Sparks of each flower's respective color rose up from them, lethargically climbing up to join the embers and stars in the sky. I followed a pattern of sparks, seeing the potential of a shape in them.

It was perfect. I knew nothing that could ever beat that moment with how utterly breathtaking it was. I swear my smile was larger than Pinkie could ever dream of. I sighed in complete contentment, unable to comprehend the full beauty with my mind.

As the sparks faded away, the lingering reds that drifted upwards slower than the rest formed a shape that seemed to me like a cheesy coincidence one would read about in a corny romance novel. I don't have to mention to anypony what it was, because every time I've told the story, everypony smiled knowingly. I felt the blanket loosen slightly, Twilight's body shifting next to me. Her hoof reached up, curling around my shoulders.

As we lay there in the dark, the cold outside stopped mattering. The world consisted of only me, her, and the blanket we shared. I yawned, sleepiness tugging at me like Angel. I let my eyes flutter closed. Soon, though, my body lost balance, and I tumbled down onto my side. Just before I slipped into sleep, I felt Twilight's hooves wrap around me, her chest pressing into my back. I took her hooves in mine, never wanting her to let go of me, allowing sleep to visit me.

Author's Note:

This one took a while to write, but I've been seeing this scene in my head for days. In fact, I had this all in my head since I started Bloom (Day) and have been steering towards ending with cuddling. For all of my TwiShy readers, I started a Contest which I'll be judging. I encourage EVERYONE to participate. (Of course... If you want to... that is...)

I will not be updating this one because I don't quite have a plan for what to do with the next chapter. I have a rough idea, but absolutely no clue what I'm going to do with it. I'll prolly work on The Butterfly Dragon: Legendary.

<3 DarqFox