//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Frosty Fates // by Storm Vector //------------------------------// Midnight did another aerial loop to calm his nerves…the sixth time in fifteen minutes he’d had to do it. “Oh who am I kidding…” he muttered, glancing down at Vlyka and Crystal below him. He looked out at the storm out to the west, apparently moving further away, marking to him Winter's position. What worried him so much though was that the storm was growing bigger, making it hard to tell exactly how fast it was moving…but it was moving away. They weren’t moving fast enough…Stormy could have caught up with it faster by flying, but he knew that even if he did catch up with Winter, he had no idea what to say to her. He’d bungle talking to her somehow, send her deeper into her sorrows...only Crystal could help Winter calm down, he knew it, maybe even Vlyka if she wanted to, but he was useless. He sighed as he glanced down at the ground below him, spotting the sisters trotting through the forest beneath. Vlyka had her muzzle almost to the ground again, sniffing the dirt. It was one thing for Vlyka to have such a close connection to canines, but when she literally had a better sense of hearing and smell than the average pony, it was really difficult not to point it out to the little mare. Of course, Midnight knew Vlyka well enough to know, even from a friend, comparing her to a dog would sound like an insult...unless it was meant as one. He couldn’t help but roll his eyes, remembering how in their first meeting Winter had cracked open Vlyka’s isolationist shell with some self-depreciating humor, and their relationship had blossomed under it ever since. Winter would toss out playful insults, calling Vlyka “pup” quite often, while Vlyka would threaten laughing when Winter melted in the hot summer sun. Midnight grinned as he remembered listening to the two of them go at it for a solid three minutes one afternoon, amazed at how quickly the both of them could come up with original insults for their amazingly close friend. He glanced back up and the smile faded, however, at the sight of Winter’s storm on the horizon. What he’d give to be sitting there again, listening to the two of them go at it, waiting to see Winter’s smile again... “Hey Midnight!” Vlyka called, snapping Midnight out of his moment. He looked down to see that he was flying past the sisters as Vlyka had stopped. “Come down here!” the little mare called, prompting him to dive down to stand beside them. Vlyka had her nose to the ground as Crystal watched with curious interest. “That storm growing much worse?” Crystal asked him, only to have him nod and point a little to the right of their current path, just the latest minor course correction to their trek. He readjusted the sunglasses on his nose, since they’d been a little jarred loose by his loops and staring down. After a second, Vlyka looked up at the two of them, her face tense with worry. “I can smell her trail, this way, but...” She hesitated, prompting Crystal to gently put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder and smiling. “It’s...it’s weird really, I just...her trail is weakening.” “Well that should be normal, right?” Crystal asked, but Vlyka shook her head. “No, the trail should get stronger the closer I am to her. But...it’s almost like her trail...like there’s something else there.” Vlyka’s tail twitched anxiously as she spoke. “Like something’s following her...something familiar somehow.” Crystal pat her sister’s shoulder comfortingly. “It may just be a wild animal following her. Winter’s resilient, she’ll be fine.” Vlyka looked back at Crys with a look Midnight had felt on his face many a time: pained, enforced silence. She was holding back some response, something she wanted to say but didn’t feel Crystal could handle or was interested in it. Crystal had turned away to look down the path and missed the expression, Vlyka turning her head down to sniff the ground again for Winter’s trail. Midnight watched Vlyka for a moment before deciding to hoof it for a while, not exactly feeling like being up in the sky to watch the storm he could have stopped spiral out of control. About an hour later the sun was starting to set, and the snow was beginning to pile up around them as they kept walking. The trio found their way to a nearby stream and Vlyka began pitching the tent she carried for her occasional wilderness explorations. Midnight had gone to get firewood while Crys set up a preliminary dinner for the three of them, which she started to cook over Midnight’s roaring fire right as the sun began to dip below the horizon. Despite everypony sitting around the fire for light, Midnight admittedly wincing a little at how bright it was for his eyes, not a word was said for an uncomfortable twenty minutes. Surprisingly, it was Vlyka who broke the silence. “I’m so scared about Winter,” she muttered, staring straight into the fire. “What’s going to happen to her?” “We can’t know,” Crystal replied, “I don’t think even she does. But that’s no reason to assume the worst, is it?” she stared meaningfully at Midnight. He smiled back at her after a second and shook his head. She had him pegged, she knew just how bad he was making the situation without having to hear him say a word. He'd certainly bugged her enough with his emotional garbage to guess what he was thinking. "I guess all we can do for her is hope and catch up. That's the best we've got," he said softly. "I really just hope it's enough..." "She'll be fine, Midnight," Crys replied with a broad smile, "she's super tough! I told you how we met, right?" "I thought that was when she passed out from heat exhaustion outside your shop," he replied. Vlyka nodded in confusion. "No no...well, that is when we really started to hit it off," Crystal replied thoughtfully. "It was the winter right before that, I’d just had a terrible day trying to dig through snow out by the Everfree looking for crystals, and I was so sick of seeing it everywhere. I just wanted to go home and melt all of it out of my boots. But when I got back to town, somepony nailed me in the face with a snowball. I was so fed up with it I just grabbed as much snow as I could lift and lobbed it in the direction that the snowball had come from. And all she did was stop the whole thing and threw it back at me!” Midnight couldn’t help but laugh, joining Crystal as she giggled at her own story. “Oh that sounds like Winter alright,” Midnight shook his head. “She probably had no idea you were upset, she just thought you were having fun with her!” “Yeah it turned out the snowball was one she’d tossed at somepony else, and it missed them just to hit me dead on. It’s just hilarious how much work it took me to lift all that snow, and she turned it around on me like it was nothing!” Crystal sighed and looked up at the night sky with a broad smile on her face. “What a crazy coincidence...and I’m so glad it happened.” Vlyka smiled along with her companions and nodded. “She’s really good company, even for me.” Crystal looked at her sister with a bemused grin. “You know I’ve been meaning to ask you. Why do you let her joke about being raised by timberwolves?” Vlyka cringed for a split second as her sister spoke, Midnight watching her for any signs of a worsening mood. Vlyka’s past was a touchy subject for her, even with the three ponies she trusted above everypony else. But Crystal was right, Winter had taken several stabs at how Vlyka had been found being cared for by timberwolves, even though by all estimates the mare had been only sheltered a night or two by the creatures of the Everfree. “I don’t know,” Vlyka muttered. “I guess it's because the first time she mentioned it I wasn’t really sure if she was kidding or not. By the time I worked out it was a joke, she’d already insulted herself enough that I forgave her for the confusion.” Midnight nodded. “Yeah, Winter’s told me how much she can be afraid how strong her snow and ice can be...I think she realized she messed up by touching that subject and wanted to make you feel at ease with it by poking one of her own problems.” “Well, it sure worked,” Vlyka said, “and the fact that she’s so quick with a reply to my stupid comments...I never thought anypony would be so willing to joke with me like she does, especially a mare from Canterlot!” Everypony laughed briefly at Vlyka’s reply as Midnight tilted his head back, looking out to the horizon. Just past the clouds of Winter’s storm, he could see the edge of Luna’s moon rising into the sky. Living up to his name, Midnight had always loved the night sky, so much so he’d dedicated himself to being a nocturnal weatherpony just to spend the nights watching the stars. Ever since that fateful Nightmare Night Midnight had hoped to have a proper meeting with the Princes of the Night, bereft of the other half of his namesake filling the skies as if by magic or trying to hunt down a stolen thundercloud from his inventory. But tonight, the moon wasn’t reminding him of Princess Luna... “I remember when I met Winter too, Crys,” he whispered, almost in a daze. “It was the Winter Solstice, two years ago. Her first one here. I was outside wandering the town, really just hoping for something rivaling the Summer Sun Celebration. But there was nothing there, nopony outside celebrating the longest, most beautiful night of the year...” He sighed and shook his head, as Crystal gently extend a hoof to his. He smiled and nodded to her before continuing, his voice a bit stronger. “Well after a while I gave up looking for the elusive party to end all parties, and just stormed off...” Crystal couldn’t help but snicker at his word choice, causing Midnight and Vlyka to throw her a dirty look. “Sorry,” she giggled, Vlyka only rolling her eyes in response. “Just sounded so intentional!” Midnight stared at Crystal with a single eyebrow raised, but his amusement was betrayed by the smile on his face. “I left in a huff, but I was too frustrated to just go home. So I stopped outside a shop and just started making a snowpony. I thought the foals might like a surprise when they woke up and it’d get some of my energy out, so I just started crafting it. Of course, by the time I finished that one, I turned around to see the entire street was filled with them.” “Did one of them tip their hat to you?” Vlyka asked with a slight incline of her eyebrow. “Actually, yes, the one that I’d just made tapped me on the shoulder to do that. And it scared me about ten feet straight into the air,” Midnight laughed. “Winter called up to me and apologized for terrifying me, she said she just wanted to make me smile. I was a little too wounded in my pride to be grateful to her for the effort though...” Midnight stared deep into the fire as his expression fell. “She left without even telling me her name...I even went to the town Hearthswarming party hoping I’d bump into her there, but no luck...” Crystal shifted from her seat and rested a hoof on Midnight’s, smiling softly as he looked up at her. He was trying his best to not break down crying right there, or fall apart in a nervous panic. Vlyka sighed and looked up at the sky. “We need to get her back...” she whimpered. Hearing how hurt Vlyka’s voice was, Midnight couldn’t help but stand up and walk over to the little mare, touching her shoulder gently. His smile was pitiable, but he still felt he had to comfort her, even a little bit. “We’ll find her, we’ll catch up with her...” “We’d better get some sleep,” Crystal chimed in. “Finding Winter’s going to be a lot easier if we’re all rested.” Midnight sighed, but only nodded in response. Crystal and Vlyka both smiled at him, but he turned away from the two and trotted off into the forest to think for a minute. By the time he’d returned, wrestling with three dozen painful thoughts and crushing emotional weight, the fire had dimmed so much Vlyka was beginning to put it out for the night. Crystal had made herself comfortable in the tent, but as the fire died Vlyka shivered and glanced at the tent longingly. Midnight smiled softly and pushed her shoulder, causing the little mare to step back and head for the tent to bundle up. Midnight stared into the dying embers for a moment before he stomped the fire out and doused the ashes, sighing as he did so. “Please Winter...we don’t want to lose you,” he sighed. “Please, come back...”