//------------------------------//
// Another Dream 
// Story: Frozen Family 
// by Melody Song 
//------------------------------//

Fleetfoot shifted in bed. Her mind was swimming with thoughts. And dreams.





Fleetfoot stood alone in a barren field of snow. She saw a shape, and turned.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"A friend." The shape told her. "I am here to tell you of the next rose."

"What do you know about the rotheth of the theathonth?" Fleetfoot demanded, and the shape winced.

"I am sorry to hear your voice affliction."

"My lithp? Okay, if you're going to be that way, I'm not going to lithten to what you have to thay." Fleetfoot turned and started to walk away, though she could see nothing but snow.

"I know where the next rose is. The rose of Summer."

Fleetfoot stopped and turned back.

"You were right, when you told your friends you have an inkling of how to get to the others. You must speak the riddle, in the place the roses may lurk. Sing to the element of nature that guards them, urge it to reveal the rose by telling it who you are. Summer's will be Light. Spring's: Rain, and Winter: Ice."

Fleetfoot narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"Why should I believe you?"

"I once sought the roses, same as you. I'm sorry to say it was for a selfish reason. But you and I...we aren't so different. Both of us are-were, in my case-looking for answers." the blur told her.

"Are...are you in my head? You knew what I thaid to my friendth."

"I am always with you. You and I cannot speak to each other outside the Dream Realm. And if my old friend were to walk through your subconsciousness, she would not see me."

"Why?"

"Because what you see now...is a mere memory. A shadow of my true self, hidden in the ponies of your family, the ones with power, like me."

"Then...where are you?"

"I am safe. Preserved. Untouched. But I will probably never be freed, my body rests in a place far too cold for anyone to withstand." The shape told her, inching closer. "Even Ice Familiars, like you and I."

"Ice Familiar?"

"It is what our power was known as long ago."

"If you come clother, and tell me your name, maybe I can try to find you." Fleetfoot urged.

"No, I can't. I have to go. But...Summer's rose will be found where ponies used to weave the sky to take away their heartache. Spring's stands in a place where only the purest water lies. In a river, perhaps."

"Wait, no, come back!" Fleetfoot ran towards her, only catching a blur of ice blue before she dissolved into the dream. "No!"





"Fleet, wake up!"

Fleetfoot shot straight up in bed, and Spitfire's hooves wrapped around her. Fleetfoot buried her head into Spitfire's chest fur. Spitfire rubbed her back gently.

"Baby, it's okay, it was just a dream."

"No, there wath thith mare...Thpitty..." Fleetfoot looked up at Spitfire, eyes wide. "She told me where the rotheth of Thummer and Thpring are."