Chapter 2: Wander
I felt the air slowly getting colder as I reached the forest. I hoped for something like a road but found nothing but snow. Since I finally got here, I decided to walk through the forest and hoped that I could find shelter or someone.
The forest was quite dead, well, more frozen than dead. I could see that most of the leaves on the trees were gone, there were branches scattered everywhere on the ground. I could also see mounds of snow slowly forming.
I looked back up at the sky to see how much I had left. Apparently still a lot, since the sun hasn't left its place. Strange, it felt like I walked for hours, apparently not since the sun hasn’t even moved an inch.
I could feel the chilling air slowly get even colder and I started to shiver. I guess my body had finally catched up to that cold feeling that was supposed to be felt when I left the water ages ago. I started to curse my past self for wearing such tattered clothes and for losing my left shoulder.
I kept having a strange, nagging feeling at the back of my head that something isn’t right but I’m not quite sure what it was, so I kept my guard up throughout the whole walk.
What felt like hours of constantly shivering and slow trudges through the ankle deep snow, I stumbled upon something sticking out of the snow covered ground. I started digging to find out what it was. At first, I thought it was a wooden pole but I tried pulling it but it wouldn’t budge a bit. After a bit more digging, I found out what the wooden pole on the ground was.
It was apparently a fence, a wooden fence. Why would there be a wooden fence out here? I thought to myself. As I was thinking of a possible reason to why it was out here, a thought suddenly hit me. Could it be? I checked my surroundings and noticed that I was in a clearing. I quickly ran to the other side of the small clearing and started digging on the ground in hopes that my theory was correct.
After digging for a bit, I found the same wooden fence buried beneath the snow. I soon came to the conclusion that I’m on a road that was buried in snow. I guess nobody used it for quite some time.
I looked around at the distance, trying to see a landmark of sorts. I couldn't see anything, no important looking thing or anything. I sighed and with no other choice, decided to follow the road up in hopes of finding someone or something that can keep me from dying slower. If there's a road? Then there’s civilization nearby, right?
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I got out of my room and wore my usual brown cloak and carried a saddlebag to store the notebooks containing the reports of the supplies and events from the past few months to the current days.
I walked down the halls of the castle with a feeling of annoyance. Sure, I’m the royal advisor of the princess herself and most unicorns would be honored by it but it’s a job I’m not happy doing. Yeah sure the princess has a beautiful white coat and pink mane with eyes as green as emerald. Her charm is beyond that of the greatest of bards and scholars.
Despite seemingly like the fairest maiden of the land, she is nothing more than a snobby princess who cares for little of the well being of others than herself and of her own kind.
She treats all the other ponies who aren’t unicorns as nothing more than bugs and sees unicorns as the “master” race who deserves to rule this world.
I still wondered why she made me her royal advisor anyways? That's a thought that swirled in my head most of the time I'm by her side. What was the thing that made me advisor worthy? Sure she couldn’t make Starswirl her advisor since he was too busy studying magic and ensuring that the sun and moon goes up and down. But why me? I’m nothing more but an apprentice. I don’t have the best skills in terms of not only magic, but also, in, well... advising! Besides, she doesn’t listen to any of my advice anyways, and I feel more like a servant than an actual advisor.
So why does she keep me around? What was the thing that she sees in me that's worth being a royal advisor for?
I put those thoughts aside for now as I reached the door to Princess Platinum’s room. There were 2 royal unicorn guards standing guard. I asked to be let in as the princess requested for me. The guards nodded and opened the door to let me in.
The princess’s personal room, a fairly decent sized room with decent decoration, one that is suited for royalty. There were sculptures of herself and of her father adjacent from each other by the balcony door. The smoothened stone walls were littered with gems of different color but none of them were glowing aside from the one in the ceiling. She also has a small bookcase by the corner. Which is obviously being overshadowed by her overly decorated closet. Her overly lavish and large bed compliments her snobbish attitude.
I saw the princess sitting on her couch by the fireplace near a large window overlooking the kingdom. There was a tea set right beside her as well.
She was wearing her usual royal attire, but without her regalia and just her cloak.
“Hello your highness.” I made a short and formal bow
“Ah, Clover The Clever,” Princess Platinum said with an optimistic tone without looking away from the window, “Took you awhile to get here.”
“Sorry if I took a while,” I said as I glanced around the room, “I took a quick shower that's all. So, what do you need me for, your highness?”
“Straight to business then? No small talk of how I’m doing?” She said as she picked up her tea cup with her magic, “Alright then, how are we doing in terms of supplies?”
“Well, for building supplies,” I explained, “We have a surplus of it and I highly doubt we would be running out of it anytime soon. As for food, we have about at least 1 month if we remain with our usual rationing routine, and an additional month if we conserve it to bare essential”
“A month's worth? Well at least we’ll have a month to find a way to end this winter,” Princess Platinum said as she started sipping on her hot tea, “because I don’t want to look thinner than I need to already, gotta keep my beauty and all.”
“Unfortunately,” I tone shifted to one of worry, “I can’t say we are doing well for firewood.”
“What do you mean, darling?”
I levitated a small notebook from my saddle bag containing the reports of the past few weeks to the latest ones and gave it to the princess, “I made some comparisons to the firewood usage last week and compared them to the past two nights ago, and the results aren’t pretty.”
Princess Platinum started reading the reports and nearly spat out some tea but instead forcefully swallowed it.
“Two weeks?!” Princess Platinum angrily said, “How are we down to two weeks left?! There are trees everywhere!”
“We don’t really know your highness,” I said as I levitated another notebook from my bag, “The only reports I have, which was 4 days ago, was that there was something spooking the foragers.”
“Well that was 4 days ago, where is the latest report?” Princess Platinum asked
“Unfortunately, princess,” I answered in a worried tone, “This report is the latest one I currently have right now.”
“Great, just great,”Princess Platinum then rubbed her head with her hoof, “Father is not going to be pleased.”
“So… What now, princess?” I asked
“What now?” Princess Platinum said with an annoyed tone in her voice, “We take a trip to see your mentor.”
“Wait what?”
“Yes you heard me right,” Princess Platinum said as she stood up and placed her tea cup back on the table, “We are going to see Starswirl The Bearded. Now get me my crown and also, carry my tea as well.”