//------------------------------// // II - Life in the Snow // Story: The Eternal Problem // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// Sweetie Belle glanced from the clock to the plate of apples atop a pumpkin. She tapped her hoof impatiently, continually shifting from one to the other as her annoyed expression deepened with time. “Five after…” Sweetie grumbled. “Well, that’s that, Starlight is officially late!” She twisted around to glare at the class with what she hoped was an encouraging smile, but in reality was more likely to drive fear into the hearts of the few brave enough to try and learn combat magic. “So, once again, it appears as though your snowy little TA will have to run things. ...Yes, this is looking like a pattern, isn’t it?” “Can’t you report her for negligence or… something?” A young black kirin asked. “Who would I report her to? Herself?” Sweetie chuckled. “She’s the commander, only below the Princesses, and the moment I need to go whine to Twilight about Starlight being late is the day I eat my hat.” “...You don’t have a hat,” a blue unicorn pointed out. “Exactly.” The class started to murmur amongst themselves. “But this is combat spell training!” Sweetie declared. “So we are going to learn how to smash ice monsters into shrapnel! Today… precision.” She levitated the plate of apples over to herself and placed one of them just above her horn. “If you can shoot this apple off my head you get to eat it.” “Where did you even get those?” the kirin asked. “A mare never reveals her secrets. ...Unless she’s trying to teach those secrets to—nevermind, the metaphor isn't important. What is important is that you learn how to hit small areas with your spells. All these explosions and wide-range attacks are good and all, but not all monsters out there are hulking behemoths.” “Will this help with windigos?” a purple unicorn asked. “No,” Sweetie sighed. “The spells that can touch those swirling mongrels are unfortunately end-of-course material. Punching wind doesn’t really work.” She coughed. “Soooo, who wants to go first?” “Eh, why not.” The kirin stepped forward and pointed her horn at Sweetie. She unleashed a nice, focused burst of white energy. It would have burned Sweetie’s face half-off if she didn’t put a shield up. “Yeah. No.” Sweetie rolled her eyes. “Good form, but terrible aim.” A unicorn tried next. He jumped forward, smirked, and unleashed a fireball. It was large enough to consume Sweetie whole. Deflecting it to the side, Sweetie sighed. “Precision, that was not.” “At least the apple will be warm for whoever gets it!” Sweetie facehooved. “Let’s… just keep trying.” After a myriad of other failures, that one stallion with all the knives strapped to his body walked up. Sweetie refused to believe his name was actually Edge, but that’s what he called himself. He levitated a knife out and skewered the apple before Sweetie could say anything. “...We’re supposed to be working on our combat spells, Edge.” Edge shrugged, munching on the apple before she could take it from him. Sweetie’s eye twitched. “You know what, if you’re so confident…” She levitated another apple onto Edge’s head. “Why not take my place? I’m sure nothing will go wrong.” The rest of the class froze, turning to Edge with wide eyes. “Don’t do it!” the kirin hissed. “It’s…” Edge walked up to where Sweetie was and turned to the class, head held high. He said nothing. Sweetie twitched. I am going to let one of those fireballs get close enough to singe him before I dispel it. He needs to be kicked off that pedestal stat. This never occurred. No student took a single shot at Edge’s apple. Because Starlight teleported into the room with an orange pegasus on her back. In an instant, Sweetie’s carefully constructed “hard combat instructor” exterior vanished, falling apart with a pained cry of so many emotions she couldn’t parse. “SCOOTALOO!?” She ran to the limp pegasus, tears welling up without her awareness. Pressing a hoof to Scootaloo, she could feel the mare breathing. But… no heartbeat? Sweetie couldn’t register what this might mean. All she could feel was the ice crystals in Scootaloo’s fur and feathers. Clear signs of frostbite on virtually every part of her body. “Wh…” “I don’t know. I found her just a minute ago,” Starlight said. “She’s lucky I mis-teleported…” Starlight trotted away. “Class is canceled today!” Sweetie scrambled after her as she left the classroom, entering a hallway of the Crystal Academy. Making a sharp left, they found the nurse’s office, currently occupied by the only zebra in the crystal empire. “What can I do for you, if you are feeling blue?” Zecora asked, looking up from a book she was reading. “Is that Scootaloo?” Sweetie didn’t have the awareness to comment on Zecora rhyming three lines instead of two. “Yes! Yes! Help her!” “I will do my best to keep this mare from doom! Lay her here and send word to Apple Bloom!” Starlight did as asked, setting Scootaloo down and teleporting away to get Apple Bloom. Sweetie remained, staring at the weak pegasus with terrified eyes. “Is she…” “I am surprised she is breathing at all, given the torture of the icy hail.” Zecora placed a warm cloth on Scootaloo’s forehead and inserted a thermometer into her mouth. “No heartbeat of which to speak. This, I say, is looking bleak.” “W-what do you mean?” “I am afraid I know not, for without a heart a mare should rot.” She carefully placed her hoof on Scootaloo’s chest, feeling around the ribcage. “Many scars abound, what has this mare been around?” Allowing herself to look more closely, Sweetie was horrified to see dozens of old scars running across Scootaloo. One of her ears had a notch taken out of it and a few long marks dotted her body, including one across her left cutie mark. Zecora frowned as she felt something within Scootaloo. “Bones do not make right angles, an unnatural thing is in this body’s tangles…” She pressed down, trying to get a better sense of what was in Scootaloo. Scootaloo’s eyes flew open, revealing eyes that glowed with an unnatural blue light. She let out a horrid shriek that shouldn't have come from any pony. The air around them went cold. “Scootaloo!” Sweetie shouted. “Scootaloo, stop!” It wasn’t clear if Scootaloo was even there. It was just screaming. “Zecora, do something!” “I… do not know what dark magic makes this so!” Starlight returned with Apple Bloom a moment later - the yellow mare was wearing her bow and nurse’s cap, the latter of which appeared to have been hastily slapped on. She took one look at Scootaloo and ran for the medicine cabinet. “What in the…?” Starlight’s eyes widened as she examined the screaming Scootaloo. “It… feels like windigos!” “It’s SCOOTALOO!” Sweetie shouted. “Ah got it, Ah got it!” Apple Bloom said, pulling several medicines out of the cabinet and tossing them into a miniature cauldron she had situated on a nearby counter. “Mixing medicinals is dangerous! You do not want to injure us!” “Do you have a better idea?” Apple Bloom shouted, already having ground the medicines into a powder. Getting silence from Zecora, she continued, stirring the brew. Muttering words to herself as she did so, the pasty goo quickly became a ruby liquid, ripe for use. When it started sparking, she knew it was ready. “Let’s hope this works…” She threw the brew onto Scootaloo’s face. The shrieking stopped instantly. Scootaloo’s eyes became normal and her breathing slowed. Apple Bloom smirked. “Ah told ya. Worked like a charm.” And then Scootaloo lit on fire. Starlight acted quickly, teleporting several feet of snow on top of Scootaloo, smothering the flames in an instant. She buried Sweetie, Apple Bloom, and Zecora in the process, but to be fair she hadn’t really been given much time to think the spell through. Slowly, Sweetie pulled herself out of the snow. “I have no… idea… what just happened.” “Potion overcompensated,” Apple Bloom responded, digging herself out next. “It is why mixing ingredients quickly is a bad idea, generally.” “A student are you, for you never do what you should to be good.” Zecora kicked some snow out of her ear. “You can say that again,” Scootaloo said, poking her head out of the snow. “SCOOTALOO!” Sweetie shouted, pulling the pegasus into a hug. “You…” “I’m back…” Scootaloo laughed… a sad sound. “Been a while, huh?” “We… we haven’t seen you since…” “Since the windigos came,” Starlight said, taking a few steps forward. “...What have you been doing all these years?” Scootaloo’s eyes drifted as her focus shifted to things far, far away. “That… is a long, long story…” ~~~ “WEEEoooooEEEooooMMMMM.” “Flurry, shut up,” Luster deadpanned. She was sitting on her bed, trying to read a book. “FEEEEEEEEEEEL the floooooooow Lusterhhhhhh.” “You are making the worst music. Ever. Of all time.” “Well, duh, I can’t make the sounds right with my mouth!” Flurry scoffed. “You’ll just have to hear what the synth has to offer when we get it back from Vinyl.” “...Flurry, you could just ask her for it instead of sneaking around like some kind of thief.” “You don’t know how to have fun.” “And you know too well.” Flurry snickered. “It’s a good thing I’m coming with you on this trip to Subquestria. You’d just squander it all on learning without me around to show you how to get…” She pulled a pair of sunglasses out from behind her mane. “Funky.” “...How long have you been waiting to use those?” “A few days. Takes a lot more planning with the magic lock.” Luster rolled her eyes. “I can imagine…” “But, you know what, it makes it so worth it!” “So you are learning something!” Flurry’s smile vanished in an instant. “Ugh. UUUUUUUUGH. Why does everything have to be some kind of friendship lesson?” “Who’s in charge again?” “The Princess of Friendship, yeah yeah…” Flurry tapped her hoof on the ground, annoyed. “Always gotta be something to learn, yada yada…” “It seems to work pretty well.” “I’m not saying it doesn’t work,” Flurry said. “I’m saying it’s annoying. I’d like to… you know, just once, have an idea that’s better than her, you know? She’s not perfect. She can’t be right all the time.” “No. Just more often than you.” Luster cracked a smile. Flurry looked around for something to throw at Luster. Before she could settle on a pillow, there was a knock at the door. “Come in,” Luster said, closing her book. Spike walked in, having to duck to fit in Luster’s pony-sized door. “Hey. There’s been some change in the… plans.” “Drama alert!” Flurry declared. “Are we not leaving? Is our departure delayed? Oh, woe i—” “Nothing that fancy,” Spike said, ruffling his scaled wings. “Just… Something’s come up that Twilight’s going to have to deal with personally.” “So, what, we’re going with Rarity?” “No…” Spike rubbed the back of his head. “See, Rarity has to deal with it too.” Luster raised an eyebrow. “...Being very suspicious here, Spike.” “The ponies involved would rather less people know about it. You’ll probably find out when you get back what this whole fiasco is.” “Right, fine, I won’t press. Who’s taking us, then?” “I am!” Spike grinned. Flurry and Luster stared at him. “What? I’m a good guide!” “I mean…” Flurry grinned. “It would be nice to have a big, strong dragon guide us through the endless, frozen wastes…” She raised her eyebrows. “Stop that.” “Make me.” Spike glanced to Luster. “Does she realize I can?” Luster nodded. “Yes. She knows you won’t.” “You sure you can handle us?” Flurry giggled. “I’m already regretting signing up for this,” Spike grunted. “...But I already said I’d do it, so here we go! Spike—” “—the brave and glorious—” Flurry inserted. Spike ignored her. “—is going to take you on a grand tour of the outside world! Subquestria’s the main event, but there’s so much more we’ll get to see!” He unrolled a map and set it down for them to look at. “We’ll take the route to Yakyakistan first, to get used to the journey. Then we’ll take a sharp turn south through the frozen pillars until we reach the Kirin Outpost. After that it’s a relatively short trek to Subquestria. On the way back we’ll take the sea route and drop by Fyrge, Seaquestria, and Griffonstone, but that’s relatively easy.” “Wait…” Luster pointed at the map. “After we get through Griffonstone we’ll have to cross the Pillars of Peril to get back to the Empire. Are you sure we can do that?” “Psh, it’s not as dangerous as they say,” Spike said, dismissively. “...Then again I can literally melt any of the monsters that live there, so…” “Oh, what a big, strong dragon…” Flurry cooed. Spike rolled up the map and hit Flurry with it like she was a misbehaving cat. She hissed at him. Luster giggled. “Well… a grand tour of the world… just the three of us.” She laughed nervously. “This will be… interesting, to say the least.” Flurry clapped her hooves. “And I will have a flurrywave mixtape ready for the road!” “Flurry no.” “Flurry YES!” “What’s flurrywave?” Spike asked. Flurry’s already absurd grin widened even further. “Oh, do I have a treat for you.” Spike gulped. ~~~ It didn’t matter how far south they went. Snow. Only snow. Truly endless snow. Even the once great Bone Dry Desert had been reduced to cold sheer winds over a frosty ground. Surely somewhere in the world must be warm, they had thought. So they braved the icebergs of the southern pole, enduring temperatures life itself struggled to trudge through. The other side of the world had filled them with hope. But even here, it was snow. Deserts reduced to frost, rivers stuck in time, and windigos prowling everywhere. Now, as they traveled across the northern ice sheet, they knew they had almost circled the planet. “There has to be some way to destroy them,” the once-queen of Changelings, Chrysalis, hissed as she vaporized a windigo trying to eat her. “This can’t be it!” “The fires of friendship,” Tirek said, draining another windigo of its magic. “Never,” Chrysalis seethed. “Never will I let that disease run over this planet again. It is better frozen than… that.” “Agreed,” Tirek added. “But the cold is the price we pay for that.” Chrysalis let out a shrill hiss. “They fall just like ponies, if you drain them enough. Surely there must be a way to take them all.” “How long have we been wandering the frozen wastes of the world, Chrysalis?” Tirek asked. “How long have we increased our power?” “It doesn’t matter.” “It does. If there was a way to do it, we would have found some sign of it by now.” “We haven’t been looking hard enough!” Chrysalis hissed. “We just thought there had to be something warm somewhere. Well, that wasn’t true!” Tirek reached into his saddlebags and pulled out Grogar’s Bell. “Not even this could defeat them! Not all at once!” “It’s not big enough! We need something… more. Their power has to have a limit. Something to… erase their very essence!” “Nothing in this world has the capacity to do that!” “MAY I OFFER A SUGGESTION?” Tirek and Chrysalis turned their heads sharply, staring in surprise at what appeared to be a massive, red crystal embedded in the snow. “WHY RELY ON THINGS IN THIS WORLD TO DO WHAT YOU DESIRE?”