The flight the rest of the way was filled with idle chatter and immense speculation on Spike’s part. The book that had refused to burn but now seemed to be… whispering to him? He didn’t know if Thorax could hear it too, but if his ears twitching in different directions like he was trying to pick up noise, alongside the occasional reach upward to check if there was something in his ear was anything to go off of, he was probably hearing it too. He finally relented and pulled out the book to check what was going on, before he was shocked by a sudden and abrupt drop in temperature. He quickly stuffed the comic book back into his pocket before going for a landing. It wasn’t worth the extra speed to risk flying in the eternal snowstorm. Especially when they’d been warned beforehand that it was particularly malicious this time of year.
“Stay close Spike, we definitely don’t want to get separated. I don’t think either of us would last long in this cold…” He was cut off by a particularly strong, frigid breeze forcing an involuntary shiver out of the changeling. The shadowy, yet reflective light of daytime in the furious snow had an interesting effect that Spike hadn’t noticed at first. It caused a slight shift in the hue of the changeling’s carapace, changing the gaudy, neon colors to a more muted, pastel version that was much more appealing. It also served to accentuate the changeling’s handsome, sharp facial features, much in contrast to Spike’s rounder facial features. Standing next to Thorax, admiring him in this way, he only served to drive himself further into the hopeless affection he’d garnered for the Changeling King over all this time, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to care anymore.
Wasn’t his damn fault Thorax was damn good-looking.
“Yeah, I get you,” He squinted, able to make out the magical glow of the Crystal Empire as being relatively close by. “Luckily, we landed pretty close by the Empire. If we move quickly, we won’t have to spend much more time in the storm. Let’s go.”
They trudged through the heavy snowfall. Despite how much was falling all around them, not much more seemed to be added to the amount already on the ground. The real problem was the snow that whipped and frenzied around them. Like a raging ocean, the frigid snow and wind crashed over them, each wave pushing them one step closer to freezing. Unfortunately, they’d come to overestimate the distance between their landing place and the Empire, but they had almost made it.
Key word: almost.
Just as they reached the final stretch between them and the warmth and safety of the Crystal Empire, Thorax collapsed, breathing shallow as rapid, unceasing shudders tore through him. Spike knelt down next to him, eyes going wide as he frantically tried to figure out some way to help Thorax. Lighting a fire wasn’t a good idea, the wind would put an end to that quickly. Then he heard it. The explosion of static once more. An outward burst of force launched in time with Spike’s shout. He covered his eyes as shapes danced violently in his peripheral vision and steadily moved inward. He could make out voices in the storm of static. But, they slowly dissipated. The noise calmed down, and he opened his eyes. The sting of cold winter air no longer nipped at his face, because put quite simply, there wasn’t any more wind. The furious blizzard had evaporated within a mile radius. Thorax was steadily coming to, and Spike sat by him to help him up.
“What happened…? Weren’t we in the middle of a blizzard?” Spike shrugged. He kept looking around. He could still see some snow, but it was a good distance away. And it didn’t seem like it was moving any closer. “Well, in that case, we oughta sit here for a moment. I’m still freezing. Hopefully Shining Armor and Cadance aren’t too angry with us for being late…” Spike pat him on the back.
“I doubt they’re angry with us. If anything they’d be worried. I’m guessing they sent Shining Armor to come find us.” As if on cue, the shape of a pony moved towards them from the edge of their field of view.
A couple of minutes passed and Shining Armor finally reached them.
“There you two are. What happened over here? One minute it’s completely frigid and then three steps later it's 70 degrees and sunny.” Spike stood up and stretched.
“Not much to tell you, I’m not really sure what happened. We were walking through the snow when all of a sudden Thorax collapsed. I started hearing this really loud buzzing, and my eyes started getting really foggy, and when I could finally see again, it was like this.”
“Well, we can’t just sit here. I’ll have Cadance try to teleport us in.” His horn glowed a different pink than usual. Somewhere in between his and Cadance’s magic. A bolt of light shot back in the direction of the Crystal Empire, and after a couple of seconds, the world folded around them, and they landed inside the Crystal Palace.
“There you all are! We were so worried for a moment. Before I’d even asked him to, Shining was gearing up to go after you two.” Cadance gave Spike a hug, despite his being almost taller than her at this point. “Twilight sent enough stuff over for a few days, so you should be fine for the time being.”
“Thorax, your room is the same as you left it. That raises the question though-” He turned to Spike. “-Do you want your own room, or do you just want to share a room with Thorax?”
Before he could even consider the other option, his brain moved ahead and made the decision for him.
“Sure, I’ll room with Thorax. It’ll be like that one time I stayed here for the weekend while Twilight went into deep cleaning mode.” Damnit brain, stop trying to be romantic in any way possible.
Still though, having already made his decision, he grabbed his stuff from Cadance, and followed Thorax up to his old room.
“How long do you think it’ll take for one of them to get tired of waiting and just admit it?” SHining whispered to his wife.
Cadance snorted. “I’ll bet you five bits it takes three days for Spike to break down.”
“You’re on. I’ll bet five on Thorax going down first. You’ve seen how emotional he gets.”