The battle had never reached its end. A vicious storm of ice and snow had suddenly moved in and buried the battlefield under a white blanket. Those who survived the battle - and not been buried under snow - retreated to their homes for rest and sanctuary.
Cobalt was not one of those ponies.
Dahlia had been watching the battle from a hill within the surrounding forest, her attention on a blue unicorn in silver armor. She was certain that he had not fallen to an enemy’s blade, but to the winter storm.
The blizzard calmed and only a few remaining snowflakes drifted through the air. The pure, white snow lay smooth and untouched. The storm had lasted all but ten minutes.
“Dahlia!” a voice shouted above her.
She looked up to see Autumn, the mysterious pegasus soldier who had renounced her tribe and her home to save the lives of unicorns and earth ponies. What her motives had been, Dahlia was still unsure.
“I last saw him over here!” The tan pegasus flapped her wings and flew over a spot in the snow, angling her wings to circle it.
Dahlia galloped over, having to leap through the snow like a rabbit to not sink down. “Cobalt?!” she called.
She made her way over to the spot Autumn had pointed out, furiously digging into the snow with her front hooves. “Cobalt, please be okay,” she whispered.
Autumn landed next to her to help her dig through the snow.
The two mares had reached dirt before they finally uncovered an unconscious blue stallion.
Autumn picked him up and carried him away from the battlefield. Everything was covered in snow. The trees, the grass, the rivers. If any wildlife had survived the blizzard, they didn’t dare trek out into their new surroundings.
Dahlia followed from the ground, hopping ungracefully over to where Autumn had disappeared to. Sitting in the forest, was a hasty, sloppy cabin made of wood. It was halfway buried in snow, but its single pegasus resident had cleverly put a door in the roof.
“Come,” Autumn instructed, brushing off snow and disappearing down into the small house.
Dahlia looked into the hole and dropped down, landing hard on her flanks. Some ponies didn’t have wings to help them land. She rubbed her sore behind and looked around in the murky darkness.
Autumn set Cobalt down near the hearth and set to starting a fire.
“How long have you been living here?” Dahlia asked softly, noticing the lack of furniture or any homely decor at all.
“Two weeks,” the pegasus replied, focusing on the small flame. “I found the remains of an old house located directly in the middle of the three tribes. All that was left was the fireplace. I rebuilt the rest of the house around it so that I would have a place to live.”
“You’ve been living here since you abandoned your tribe.”
“I did not abandon them. I turned my back on war in favor of harmony.”
Dahlia sat down beside Cobalt, pressing a hoof gently to his neck. There was a very faint, fluttering pulse and he was trembling like a leaf in wind.
“The fire will warm him,” Autumn said, sitting down beside Dahlia. “I think he will be alright.”
She smiled and laid down, laying her head over his back. “Big, dumb idiot,” she muttered.
The truth was that Dahlia had been fond of Cobalt since the day they met in the Unicorn Kingdom. She could tell he felt the same, but pushed him away. A unicorn and an earth pony could not be friends, let alone a couple. She had thought it would have been better to keep him at a distance, but still could not control the erratic beating of her heart whenever he was near. Then, when he showed up at her home to rescue her, she knew she had fallen too far.
Now, all she wanted was for him to open his eyes and smile at her.
As hours passed, the sun began to set. It was the first sunset in a month, and it was the most beautiful sight Dahlia had ever seen. She had forgotten how much she enjoyed watched the pale blue sky fade into strips of pink, orange, and purple. Even the snow seemed beautiful in that moment.
Autumn was curled up in a corner of the tiny house, soundly sleeping on a pile of blankets arranged like a bird’s nest.
Dahlia spread a blanket over Cobalt and closes her eyes to sleep.
——
As morning dawned, Dahlia slowly opened her eyes. A pair of ice blue eyes met her own and she felt her breath catch in her throat.
Then he smiled, relieving all of her fears and doubts and insecurities with just one upwards curl of his mouth. “Now we’re even.”
She slowly smiled back, tears pricking in her eyes. “I didn’t save you to be even. I saved you because you’re my friend.”
Cobalt slowly reached out a hoof.
Dahlia reached out her own to hold his. “Don’t go back.”
“What happened to being loyal to your tribe?”
“Watching them fight was heartbreaking. I can’t bear to go back when all that matters to them is defeating the unicorns and pegasi. That and...it’s not the same without Rylla.”
He bit his lip, something she noticed he did when he was unsure what to say next. “My father is dead.”
Dahlia nodded. “I assumed that when I saw your sister leading the unicorn army. I heard about the pegasi claiming your stronghold for a day.”
“It’s not the same without him. Platinum scares me with how serious and focused she is…”
“Then let’s...let’s go somewhere else. Find a new home. Where there isn’t any fighting.”
Cobalt looked at her. “Me and you?”
“And Autumn.” She looked over to see the pegasus watching them.
Autumn stretched her wings. “I am going to stay here. I will keep an eye on things. Perhaps, if the relationships between the pony tribes improve, I could come find you.”
Dahlia smiled. “You’ll let us know that it’s safe to come home. Until then, Cobalt and I will find a place where we can live together in peace.”
Cobalt held her hoof tighter. “A new beginning.”
She looked at him, her eyes conveying all the emotion she needed him to see. “For both of us.”
——
Snow covered the ground and a cold breeze whistled through the trees. The chill cut straight through a pony’s coat and froze their bones. It was not ideal weather for a long trek, but the two ponies trotting down the forest path didn’t seem to mind.
They had long ago left the three warring pony tribes behind them and would soon enter a new land, a new home brimming with endless possibilities for the future.
As the sun set, the unicorn and the earth pony laid down in a cave together, looking up at the stars. Soon they would leave behind the snow and the guilt and the memories of painful times, instead turning to a new dawn.
A dawn they could greet together. Not as enemies, but as friends.
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