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// Chapter 04: Two Ponies, a Phoenix and Myself 
// Story: Walking on Frozen Paws 
// by Saysy 
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‘Ugh, my head, but hey, that means I’m still alive and ready… no! I’m not ready to tackle the day,’ I thought and closed my eyes from the pain in my head that slowly, but steadily subsided. It didn’t take long for my head to get other signals from my body and what I felt was heavenly. I never felt something so soft and fleecy and I hoped, that I could ley on it for the entire day and the next days to come. Alas, someone had something against my wish and it announced itself with a bright blue flash that I could see through my eyelids. I opened my eyes and saw a blue leg right in front of me. I slowly followed the leg up to his owner and saw the same pony, that knocked me into a wall.

“Hello, young one,” she said, but I didn’t even react and tried to make a hasty escape only to lose my ground and roll down, the what I know now is a pillow, and landed flat on the floor. As I tried to stand up I felt a tingle all over my body and I could see a blue field around my snout as someone picked me up and placed me back on the pillow without making physical contact.

‘What? Was this telekinesis?’ I sat as still as I could because someone who could pick me up without even touching me is clearly someone I don’t want to anger, especially if said person has a big hammer nearby.

"There is nothing to fear little one, your new keeper will keep you safe."

‘Keeper? Is she thinking that I'm an animal?’

<<Ahm, miss, I’m not an animal,>> I said to her, so she would see that I’m not a mere creature, but an intelligent being. Which probably fell on deaf ears because she didn’t give a response to my clarification and continued without a care.

“But first I need a name for you I can’t just call you a fox or young one, the whole time.” She seemed to be in thoughts, probably searching for a new name which wasn’t needed.

<<That is not necessary miss, I already have a name. My name is ****.” ‘WHAT?’ I cried in my mind as I realized that I got muted when I said my name. ‘My name is Jordan Black.’ <<My name is ****.>> … ‘My name is Jordan.’ 

<<Ughh!>> I groaned as my body got crushed in a press made from to two forelegs with blue fell.

“Oh, you poor thing everything will be better from now on. I’ll take care of you and then, when needed, we’ll go monster hunting all over Equestria when you’re full-grown,” she said happily as I suffered one of the scariest deaths ever. Suffocation.

<Air,>> I choked out.‘Oh shiny!!’ Finally realizing what she is doing, she let me out of the press, which was probably a hug… for an enemy.

“Please forgive me, I sometimes forget how strong I am,” she apologized with a face I would expect on a child but not on a full-grown human or pony in this case, come to think of it I don’t know if she’s full-grown or not but the fact that she goes monster hunting from time to time indicates that she is considered an adult in this world.

<<Apology accepted,>> I said to her and wanted to at something only to be interrupted, again.

“Glacies,” she said, and I just gave her a blank look. At least I thought I did, I still don’t know if my face is compatible with human expressions or not, but the pony is doing just fine so I gave my face the benefit of a doubt. Or not since she looked as unmoved and happy as ever. So, I again made a comment about the fact that I already have a name. Which again, felt on deaf ears and slowly I got the feeling that she couldn’t understand me. ‘Well, that is great a horse/pony can speak but a fox can’t that is ridiculous.’ I complained, hoping that the guy could hear me. He is probably searching his next victim.

Back to my problem. She probably took my silence as an affirmation, because she let out a happy squee, which again locked adorable.

And there goes the last thing that held me to my old life. At least I can still think my name. Can I? ‘My name is Jordan.’ Yes, yes, I can.

Growl!!

The pony, which name I still don’t know, let out a giggle at my stomach which screamed for attention.

“Oh, you must be hungry.”

<<No, what let you think that.>> I replied, and I could see a sarcasm level up symbol in the left corner of my eye. Not really.

“I have something that’ll help you with your little problem,” she said and conjured a fish to her site, which I eyed hungrily. A little jump and I held the fish in my paws and I started to devour it. Until I realized two things: First, the fish was raw, and, I jumped at it out of instinct.

Even so, these two facts are minor changes in my behavior, I couldn’t get the feeling of fear out of me as I had visions of me turning into an animal not only in body but in mind, too. My face must have once again shown my distress because I was once again between her two forelegs, but this time it didn’t feel like a press, but soothing and caring.

“Better,” she asked, and I could only nod as I made my resolve that I never become an animal as long as I have something to say about it.

I finished my fish at a normal pace as my new caretaker, name still not known, sit behind me and watched until someone knocked on the door.

“Princess Luna?” a male voice came from behind the door.

“Yes, what is it?”

“It’s time to lower the moon.” Lower the moon?

“Thanks for the information private,” she said, stood up and walked to the window with the curtains. “Come I want to show you something.”

Since I hadn’t something else to do I followed her out on the balcony. Where I had a full view of the sky, and I was mesmerized by the beauty of the night sky. Back on earth, I had never such a view, because of light pollution and clouds and even if I had I would give the sky back home an F compared to that A+ with a big star.

The Stars are like polished diamonds twinkling in the sky making constellations I’ve never seen before in my life. But even the stars palled against the beauty that was the moon easy double as big as on earth and shining with his on light, at least it looked like it. I looked up to the pony named Luna, as I now know thanks to the guard, and I saw a dark blue light around her horn. I looked around and tried to see what she is doing until I remembered what the guard said and looked up. I wished I hadn’t, because I couldn’t comprehend what I saw, the moon was cast in the same blue aura as her horn and it slowly lowered to the ground. All around the Moon, the stars blinked out one after another until the moon touched the horizon and slipped past it not to be seen until the next night. Just a second after the moon was lowered the sun rose, casting the horizon in a reddish-purple light.

Luna turned around and walked back into the room not even realizing that I wasn’t following her because I was still awestruck in place. She realized it a few seconds later and come back giggling.

“Beautiful isn’t it.” She was sitting by my side waiting for me to come back to the world which took five minutes until my brain has restarted and my thought processes booted. Out came: Luna plus moving moon equals moon-goddess. If this turns out to be true then I am lucky that I didn’t anger her at some time before. Scratch that, I don’t think it matters if she is a god or not I would be screwed one way or another.

“Come Glacies, I want to introduce you to someone.” I didn’t move.

“Glacies?” Oh, she means me, this will take time to get used to. Walking over to follow Luna we made our way through the hallways and down the tower.

On our way, we were accompanied by two guards clad in dark blue armor with a touch of purple and a moon insignia on the front. Irritating was, that they both had the same coat color and mane style. Also, they had both a sword on there side, how they use them without hands was lost on me and they head both no horns, only wings with feathers having the same color as their coat, so no levitation. I felt the stares from the two guards behind me and the guards clad in gold and white linger on me the whole time, as I would attack their princess at any given moment.

We arrived at a normal wood door with ornate carvings and two guards stationed on each side. The Guards opened the door for us and we walked in. The room behind was, for a monarchy, plain looking except for one shiny pony and a really cool looking bird. The pony was sitting on a normal chair and the bird sat on a perch eating waffles and fruits.

“Good morning, Tia, I want to introduce you to somepony,” Luna said to the white pony, that now was looking at me with an intense glare which was ten times stronger than all the guards’ glares combined. My new animal instincts screamed at me to run away as fast as possible and I made a few steps back to the door, but a leg behind me stopped me from doing so.

“Sister, you’re frightening her.”

“Sorry, Luna, but I will not lower my guard when a creature as dangerous as she is nearby.”

<< I, dangerous,>> I said out loud, which was swallowed by the verbal fight between the two sisters.

<<You must excuse my friend for her unfriendly attitude towards you, she gets a little overprotective over her sister from time to time,” came a calm voice with a little chirp in it from my left side. I turned my head towards the direction where the voice came from and saw the wall.

<<Up hear,>> said the same voice, and I looked up where the cool looking bird looked down on me.

<<Hello, my name is Philomena,” Philomena said.

<<****,>> I said, meanwhile admiring her beautiful color scheme.

…

…

<<You should give your name in return if someone is giving his or hers,>> she scolded me, which made me look at her as she was crazy until I realized that I gave her my human name out of instinct and just opened my mouth without words coming out of it. I considered giving her my name given by Luna or saying another name which wouldn’t matter because no one could understand me.

<<Galcies,>> I finally said  unenthusiastically.

<<What a wonderful name,>> she said, letting me stand there dumbstruck with a gaping mouth. ‘Of course, I can speak with an animal, I am one.’ I thought a little bit relieved that I would not have one-sided conversations for the rest of my life. Finally realizing that what I’m doing is highly disrespectful, I promptly closed my mouth and thought of a reply.

<<Thank you, but if you don’t mind me asking, what type of bird are you?>>

<<Oh, I don’t mind. Few people would ever see a living phoenix before there eyes,” she said, while proudly puffing out her chest at the same time.

<<Aha.>>

<<What no ahs or ohs, just a normal aha,>> she said shocked over my lack of surprise, gliding down and to sit beside me.

<<Well, if you see a unicorn, a pegasus and whatever you call a union between these two in one day, then seeing a phoenix is not so special anymore.>> ’And waking up as a female kitsune in another world where talking ponies and animals is normal, is kinda abnormal for me so, yeah not even pretending that I’m amazed seeing another mythical creature in front of me,’ I mentally added. 

<<From which backdoor forest did you come from! Alicorns I would understand, but pegasi and unicorns are practically everywhere. Hay, there are even more dragons then phoenixes.>> ‘Did she just used hay instead of heck?’

<<And what are you doing here?>>

<<Being a friend to Celestia.>>

<<Wouldn’t she think that your just an animal.>> She looked a little bit hurt but replied nonetheless.

<<While it is true that most ponies think of me as an animal without a mind. Celestia isn’t one of them as is Luna. Normal animals have a mind two but it’s most of the time not as developed as ponies or mythical creatures like you or myself.>>

<<You know what I am?>> I asked her.

<<Not exactly what you are, but you are clearly not a normal fox. By the way do you know what you are?>>

<<A kitsune,>> I answered, expecting her to not know what they are. Which she didn’t. As she asked me if I could tell her more about my species, I told her that I only know its name, which was a lie, but I didn’t know how much of my information’s would be accurate and which won’t.

I wanted to ask her more questions, but I was interrupted by a force pulling me over to Celestia with my paws making contact with her fur, which was getting hotter every second. A cry of victory came from Luna, and I was separated from Celestia. Meanwhile, Philomena has returned to her perch and looked between Luna, and Celestia, with an amused face.

“Ha, I told you that she can’t turn ponies to ice by contact,” she said in triumph and placed me down on the table.

“Be that as it may, I don’t want to see you hurt which means -” she turned to me with a threatening look “- don’t even think about it.” I rapidly bobbed my head up and down trying to get a little bit on her good side.

“Good, know- “she began, only to get her words cut off by Luna who shoot a glare towards her sister.

“I can look after myself, sister,” she said and turned around giving me a look that said it all. I jumped down from the table and walked over to Luna’s side. Just before the door closed I heard a quick ‘see you’ from Philomena.

On the way back to Lunas’ quarters all the guards averted looking at us or more specifically Luna. Alone by the frown on her face and the glare she gave everyone who even dared to look at us sent chills down my spine. I would even say that her mane and coat looked a little bit darker, but that was probably only my imagination.

Finally walking into her room, Luna jumped into her bed, levitated me over and hugged me like a teddy bear. At least it wasn’t the press again and I found it awkwardly comfortable.

‘Does this comes from me being a child,’ I thought as my thoughts drifting once again to my odd and calm behavior during the few hours I was awake.

Ten minutes later Luna was asleep, and I tried to get out of this position. Which turned out to be fruitless, because I couldn’t move an inch. Nothing else to do I lost myself in my thoughts and slowly I too fell asleep.