//------------------------------//
// 6. Mabel 
// Story: The Globe Trotter 
// by Carrier of Heartbreak 
//------------------------------//

	




Snowy was having the best time ever!

Not only did he get to show his snow tricks to a bunch of new ponies, he also received a bunch of yellow disks and made new friends! And all within the same few hours! One of his best new friends, the snow white unicorn named Rarity, was looking down at him through the glass, a distant expression on her face. She was very obviously lost in thought, but he couldn't hear whatever it was she was thinking.

It must have been some private stuff. The others had been shutting him off a lot lately. Why? It didn't really matter much to Snowy; he was still just ecstatic that they were even there with him in the first place. The feeling of having ponies know he existed...why did it feel so unnatural? How long had he been on that shelf? Twilight had said something about his mind not properly processing the passing of time, but...how was he supposed to know that she was right?

He still wanted to think that it had maybe been a month.

Twilight and Princess Luna, his new giant blue alicorn friend, had gone off somewhere else in the library to do who-knows-what. That was okay with Snowy, since Rarity was still there with him. It was a shame she was keeping her thoughts to herself.

Oh, her eyes were twitching a bit from not having blinked in minutes. Snowy knew what to do! He had picked up a trick earlier, when Rarity had gone off on a rant about all the clothes she was going to make for him and how famous he would be as a male model, whatever that was.

He moved himself into the way of her gaze, turned around and bent his front end lower to the ground, his booty moving in hypnotizing circles. Rarity's eyes slowly widened as he danced, the large tufts of white fluff on his butt flowing with the water in the globe.

Snowy continued patiently, knowing that it would probably take a few seconds; a couple to break her out of her original thoughts, and a couple more for her to process what she was looking at.

"S...Ssssss....Snowy?! Wha-why? Stop that! It's s-so...so lewd!" Rarity shrieked into his head, her legs moving up to cover her blushing face. Snowy obeyed and stopped his dance. With an innocent smile, he turned back around and sat down on top of a particularly comfy pile of snow. He had made it earlier as a seat, as he usually did. At least, he thought he usually did it...

His face fell a bit. Oh, how he wished he could remember...

"Snowy, I'm sorry for yelling like that. Is something wrong?" Rarity's voice entered his head, breaking his from his impending thoughts. He laughed to himself, noticing how they had just broken each other out of their worries. He never had somepony to keep his thoughts clear like that before! It was pretty nice.

"Yep! It's okay Rarity, you didn't hurt my feelings. I just started thinking about my memories again. Um...how long do you think I've been in here?" Snowy asked out of nowhere, rubbing his tiny hooves together nervously. Rarity blinked down at him before frowning slightly. She let out a small sigh that caused Snowy's expression to fall.

"Oh, darling, I simply don't know...I couldn't even make an educated guess. When it comes to mysteries regarding Canterlot and this castle, I'm not nearly as in-the-loop as the Princesses. If Twilight and Princess Luna couldn't make a guess more accurate than 'a long time', then I definitely wouldn't be able to...I'm sorry, dear. I really, really am..." Rarity told him softly, a sad but calmly look in her big, beautiful eyes. Despite the feeling of hopelessness her answer gave him, Snowy managed to overpower it by focusing on how warm and loving her tone was. He adored being cared for!

The little buck leaned back against Mabel and cuddled up into himself, embracing the warmth he felt. It made him a bit itchy, so he rubbed his back from side to side against Mabel's bark. It wasn't real bark, but it was abrasive enough to relieve his itchies.

When he looked up, he saw that Rarity's expression had changed to one of amusement. She hid her smirk behind a hoof, still remembering to look dainty. Snowy returned her smile and continued scratching.

"Got an itch, there?" she asked, trying to hold back her giggling.

"Nope, I think it's g-"

"I do NOT have to alert my sister to everything I do! She is not the ruler over me! And if she thinks she can just keep something like this hidden from me, then she-" Luna's voice cut off as suddenly as it had sounded. It wasn't even through the link. She has just shouted loudly, her voice bouncing around the library walls that Snowy had known so well.

Hiisssssssssssssss

"AND STAY AWAY FROM US, FOUL WITCH!" Luna demanded further. Snowy's ears had folded down as he stared in the direction of the angry alicorn. He didn't know what was going on over there between Twilight and Luna, but he somehow knew that he was the cause of their ire.

"I made them mad..." Snowy thought to Rarity, his tiny mental voice even more muted than normal. He pushed his body closer against Mabel and flopped down, trying to hide as much of himself behind the tree as possible. Rarity was quick to object to this.

"You are absolutely not the cause of this, Snowy! It sounds like the princess just...has some issues to work out with her sister, is all. It's probably nothing more than a family problem that they will have to sort out between themselves. You need help, and we're going to give it to you. Do not blame yourself for one single second, darling," Rarity assured in a warm but firm voice.

Snowy just leaned more into the tree, his mind wandering to her mental voice. It was the same as her normal speaking voice. Was his? He hadn't heard himself talk out loud in...had he ever heard himself talk? Rarity took his silence as rejection of her assurances and sighed.

"Fine, then. I will go over and check on them. Twilight knows the most about you, but she might not be able to convey such information with an angry, older princess there with her. Princess Luna seems quite...vocal tonight. Will you be okay over here for a few minutes?" Rarity asked. Snowy shook his head and cleared his thoughts before looking up at her.

What had she been telling him? Something about checking up on the other two. That sounded okay, they might need a third opinion. He responded with a nod to the giant white unicorn. Rarity gave him a worried look before turning and beginning her walk to the epicenter of that last royal shout.

"If you need anything, just call, dear," Rarity told him.

"Okay Rarity. I love you," he answered from his hiding place behind Mabel. He couldn't see her face from where he was, but he did see her trip and almost fall over her own legs. She quickly caught herself, cleared her throat, and continued onward into the maze of shelves. Once she was out of sight, Snowy huffed and snuggled against Mabel some more, right in the groove he had made over time. Such a sign of wear was probably evidence of just how long he had been there...right?

Month.

Probably not a month.

...Maybe two months?

"Gone..."

Snowy's ears perked up as an odd, but strangely familiar, voice entered his mind. It didn't feel like it was coming from some magical bridge like when talking to the three in the library with him. This voice felt like it was coming from all around him.

He quickly hopped to his hooves and did a quick spin to make sure nothing else was in there with him. It didn't take long to assure himself that the only things inside the globe were himself, his snow, his housey, and Mabel.

Snowy pressed himself back against the fake pine tree, using its familiar roughness to give him a sense of security.

"Buck..." the whisper came back. Again, it wasn't a sound he could figure out the source of. The very water around him seemed to be speaking. Was the globe alive? Had he been consumed by a glass ball and lived in its stomach?

"No."

Snowy shivered as he realized that whatever the voice was, it had a direct link into his thoughts and could read what he was thinking, whether or not he wanted to send it over the link.

"Who are you?" he asked, trying to stay calm. The glass ball was supposed to be his domain; his barrier between the outside world and his little area. The thought of something else being inside with him scared him greatly. Very much like how the voice was entering his mind against his will, the entity seemed fine with invading his special space.

The voice didn't respond at first.

"You...do not remember me," it sighed. "Of course you do not. Of course..." It seemed to get really sad for some reason, which triggered something in Snowy. First rule of Snowy's Globe: there will be no sad times in Snowy's Globe!

"H-hey...do you want to see a trick? Watch!" Snowy cheered as he gathered some magic into his antlers and swished his head to the side. The snow inside the globe rushed to follow the direction he was pointing, creating a small wave of white powder. It settled over half of the scene inside the globe. Snowy himself was half-covered with it.

The voice chuckled softly after a few moments of Snowy standing there, looking like a two-faced snowbuck.

"You have not changed. I am glad," the voice said, sounding much more upbeat than before. It also sounded fairly feminine to Snowy. At least, he thought it did. He had only really had conversations with mares so far.

"You know me?" Snowy asked, getting more used to the concept of thinking to talk. Not having a bridge between minds was feeling more and more natural. She went silent again.

"We have...known each other for...a long time..." her voice said softly, full of hurt. Snowy flinched at it and looked around his enclosure, trying to make sense of her words. They had known each other for a long time? How was that possible? Was she something inside of the globe?

As he thought, he felt another itch start to irritate the skin along his back. Snowy instinctively pushed himself up against Mabel again and rubbed the itchy spot. He felt the familiar groove he had worn into the side of the tree long ago, its smoothness something he always took comfort in. It was a solemn yet firm reminder of the time he had spent in the globe. It was...

Something he had known for a long time.

The buck stopped his itching, a feeling of realization creeping up on him. His brain was trying to send him some signals...some memories. As usual, the memories hit a blockage and stopped forming. But this time, something different happened.

The memories were let through.

Snowy fell backwards, the feeling of recollection startlingly new to him. He saw and heard things that had been seemingly lost to time.

A feminine voice.

His own voice responding to it.

He saw himself facing the very tree he sat before in the present time.

Two voices laughing at some forgotten joke.

His body pressing up against the tree lovingly, almost like he was trying to cuddle with it.

"M...Mabel...?" Snowy thought, his lips trembling. Some moisture floated from his eyes and into the water. He was too overcome with emotion to say or do much else. He had a memory! Something that seemed so far away had just up and popped into his head, like it had just happened! He fell onto his side and tried to collect himself.

"...Yes...do you remember anything else?" Mable asked, her voice a bit more cheery. A undertone of regret was still present, though Snowy didn't catch it.

"N-no..." Snowy replied. "Just...just some, um...times when we were talking..." He rubbed at his head with his hoof, still expecting the usual pain to hit him as it always did. It kept feeling like it was starting, until he realized that it was just his imagination.

"Okay..." her voice said. Her lack of engagement allowed Snowy some time to clear his head. When he was finally able to sit back up, he did so with a large smile on his face.

"I missed you! You haven't talked to me in forever! I think I talked to you, though..." Snowy thought excitedly. A pang of hurt was sent over to him.

"I know...I am very sorry I have not been here for you. I just could not..." she cut herself off after that and went silent.

"Couldn't...you couldn't what?" Snowy asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Nothing. Just...it is nothing..." Mabel whispered.

"Well, uhm...okay...so what did you want to do? I could get you something! Like...snow. And maybe sooome...water?" Snowy had stood up and pressed himself against Mabel again. "Okay, so I don't actually have anything I can give to you, but maybe I could show you some tricks! I can do some pretty neat things with my snow!"

"I...would love to watch some tricks...but..." Mabel started. Snowy tilted his head to the other side, his neck hurting.

"But...butt?" he asked. Mabel actually giggled a bit at his innocence.

"Butt...I need you to do something for me first. Something that could help both of us," she said. Her tone was sounding more and more eager, like she had been planning on saying those words for a long time. Snowy responded with a tiny little, instinctive booty shake. He didn't know why he did it, it just felt right. He was excited! Mabel had laughed at his joke and now needed him for something!

"What can I do?" Snowy asked, his eager eyes locked onto the fake, talking pine tree in front of him.

"Do you see that crack in the glass? Right where you hit it yesterday?" Mabel's voice floated into his head. Snowy looked around a bit, facing the side of the globe he had attacked while trying to get Twilight's attention. That was yesterday? Snowy felt like he had done that only five or six minutes ago.

"Yes?" Snowy answered, looking back around to Mabel.

"I need you to keep hitting it."

Snowy blinked and looked at Mabel incredulously, not sure how to respond to that. Yes, he had attacked his globe earlier, but only because he was trying to get Twilight's attention! He didn't want to destroy his home. What would happen to his snow if the glass broke? What would happen to him? To Mabel? To his housie? To his-

"It will be okay. I promise," Mabel's voice piped up, seemingly responding to his inner panic. Could she read his thoughts? Eh, it didn't matter much to him. She was nice and she was Mabel; that was enough for him.

Snowy gave a hesitant nod before turning to the crack again and observing it. The crack was still there, something he was somewhat thankful for. Having things jump time periods was starting to get on his nerves. Constant variables were his friends! He began his trek over to the crack in the glass, but stopped after a few steps.

"Hey, Mabel?" he asked.

"...Yes?" her soft, feminine voice responded.

"What does it feel like? Being a tree? I've always wondered..." Snowy's mental voice inquired bashfully. He even went as far as scuffing his hoof along the bottom of the globe.

Snowy could almost feel Mabel blink in surprise.

"It is...uhm...sticky..." was her answer. Snowy lifted his head and looked back to her. She said it felt sticky, being a tree. She felt sticky...and she said that to describe her experience of being a tree...

Sticky...

Tree...

Wood...

Stick.

"Hublubub ublub!~" Snowy chortled out loud, his voice coming out as nothing more than garbled bubbling. He fell onto his side and rolled around, his legs kicking up into the water. Mounds of white fluff were blown upwards as he collided with them. In seconds, the entirety of the glass orb was filled with falling snow, it's seemingly lone occupant doing his very best to displace every single white particle. It became a blizzard of the most beautiful variety, nothing but shadows visible from the outside world.

Mabel started giggling along with the tiny buck, and soon they were both laughing harder than they had in many, many years. For both of them, the feeling of absolute mirthful bliss was almost alien...but it was a very welcome sensation. The blizzard raged on around Snowy, blowing off all of the snow from Mabel's branches before replacing it with new snow.

It was shame that none of Snowy's new friends had been around to witness such a feat of emotion and reindeer magic. Such a spectacle had only been witnessed in its life-size version during the time before Snowy's entrapment.

It took a few minutes for the two to calm down again. Snowy was glad he didn't have to breathe; otherwise, he would have ended up heaving from such violent laughter. Oh, and he would have drowned long ago, too.

The buck stood himself up on wobbly legs. With a smile, he felt an image flash into his mind of himself as a young fawn, his legs even more unstable than they were now. The joy he felt from Mabel's joke distracted him from realizing that he had remembered something else.

Mabel had gone silent again, but Snowy could feel a tingling warmth emanating from her side. It was gentle and caring, almost nostalgic. Whatever she was feeling, he could feel it too, and he loved it.

"O-..hehehee...okay. I'll do that thing you wanted me to do, now," Snowy told her. Mabel made a little humming sound that made Snowy feel even better. He liked that hum. It made him feel safe...familiar...

Snowy wondered for a moment if any of the others had heard his conversation with Mabel. He could still hear Princess Luna's voice getting louder every few seconds, so he assumed that they hadn't.

Positioning himself in front of the crack, Snowy again felt bad for what he was going to do. He didn't want to hurt his home. But if Mabel said it would be okay, then he knew it would be. She was Mabel! She wouldn't lie to him, especially after that super funny joke she had told. Being funny is the most certain sign of honesty.

The crack had grown since he had first made it. Maybe it was from the snow tricks he had done, or maybe it was just the age of the glass. Even from inside, Snowy could see frost staining the outside, all around the splintering glass. He tilted his head in thought.

It was almost like a metaphor. The frost was like him, trying to reach out into the outside world, but still unable to because of its dependence on the globe. And the globe was like-

"Buck?" Mabel chimed, a bit of worry in her tone. He shook his head from side to side to help gather his thoughts, some snow following the magic still tingling in his antlers.

"Sorry, just thinking again. Oh, and my name is Snowy," he explained to her.

"No, it is...n-...okay..." she answered. The globe grew colder at that moment, giving Snowy the first chill he could remember ever feeling. If it was cold enough to make him cold, then it was pretty darned cold. It was the sad kind of cold that one would feel when having lost someone in a blizzard and knowing that they wouldn't make it.

Snowy shivered off the strange feeling and went back to his task.

"Okay, so...like..." he thought to himself as he reared up on his back hooves. With a grunt of effort, he jumped forward and shoved his front hooves against the same spot he had been smashing his head into the day before.

"Eh!"

Dunk

...

"That is not hard enough, B-...Snowy..." Mabel said softly to him. His face grew warmer at having given such a weak performance. He hadn't gotten to show her any of his snow tricks yet, so she must have thought he was useless already. Snowy would not live with being weak! He had to follow through with his mission!

With a louder grunt, he threw all of his weight against the crack and even tried using some of his magic to push the snow up with him.

"EHH!"

DUNK!

"Keep trying...you are doing well..." Mabel cheered gently. It was less of a cheer and more just words of reassurance, but they boosted Snowy's confidence just the same. It was time for the lightning round!

"EHH EHH EHH EHH EHHHH!"

D-DUNK

DUNK DUNK

DUNK!

"Snowy...?" Mable's voice came up just as he was about to strike again. He stopped and fell against the glass, using it to keep himself upright on his back legs.

"Yes?" he responded curiously.

"I...I love you..."

She did?

Well, that's sweet of her. She was surely the best fake pine tree a reindeer could hope to spent eternity inside of a snow globe with.

"I love you too, Mabel," was Snowy's answer. Without waiting, he started to attack the crack again, hoping against the odds that whatever happened when it broke would be good. He didn't want to just spill out and flop around like fish.

That would be stupid.

"Everest..." Mabel's voice came again, though very faint.

"Hm?" Snowy stopped again.

"My name is Everest, not Mabel..."

Whoa, what? Since when? It had always been Mabel, ever since he...had given her that name. Did he name someone without asking them if they already had a name? Oh, now he felt like jerk.

"Sorry! I just...okay, so you said your real name is...Everest..." Snowy's mind came to a grinding halt. Just saying that name out loud made his body start tingling all over. Something about that name was special...something was familiar...had he said that name recently? Someone had...Twilight. She told him that he had been muttering it when he first saw Rarity...

It meant something.

Whatever it was about her real name, it was super important for some reason.

"Snowy?" Everest inquired, nudging him with a thought.

"Everest...that name...it's...really nice..." Snowy answered, too caught up in his own thoughts to give a coherent response.

An approaching set of hooves from the outside caught his attention, making him lose his thoughts about her name. The girls must have been returning. It was strange, though, the sounds were louder, and...from only a single pony. It was definitely louder than Twilight or Rarity would have been, so it must be Princess L-

White.

Long, flowing rainbow mane and tail.

Horn.

Wings.

Golden, amethyst-studded regalia.

Intricate sun mark stamped proudly on her flank.

Large, violet eyes...

...locked on Snowy's globe.

Princess Celestia.

The globe seemed to freeze from the inside. The water itself solidified for a moment, before it quickly grew warm.

Snowy's eyes were locked with Celestia's, his body frozen in terror.

It was her. The very alicorn whose very name brought feelings of horror and despair...she was right there, looking at him. Her face was frozen as well, not a single part of her body still moving.

Celestia's mouth started moving up and down, like she was trying to say something. When nothing came out, she lifted a hoof to her muzzle and covered it. As her eyes remained locked with Snowy's, he noticed that her gaze started to blur, almost like she was tearing up over something. What it was, he didn't even want to know.

He could feel Everest in there with him. The only emotion he could sense from her was the one that was starting to overpower him and boil the water inside the globe:

Anger

Snowy might have yelped from how hot the water was getting, but he was still locked in a staring contest with the horrified princess. Celestia, in turn, had frozen with her hoof still covering her mouth. She was definitely crying now, if the long, thin trails of moisture running down her cheeks were evidence of anything.

She let out a stifled sob.

Then another.

She was openly crying now, the sound of her sadness mixing with the new sound of a group of approaching ponies.

"Princess Celestia?!" squeaked both Twilight and Rarity.

"Sister!" shouted Princess Luna.

"BREAK THE GLASS!" Everest's voice boomed, seeming to shake the globe itself. Snowy yelped and scrambled to comply. The power in her voice was even more frightening to him than the immortal alicorn that he had always feared standing only a few pony-lengths away. He began attacking the crack with more ferocity than he had even known himself to be capable of. 

Dunk!

"HARDER!"

"Snowy, what are you doing?!" Twilight's voice entered his head, but something was quick to stifle it.

"I SAID HARDER!"




DUNK!

DUNK-CRK!

Crk...crik...CRACK!

"NO!"

SPLOOSH