Alas, as the old saying goes, all good things had to come to an end… The skies began to darken and grow cold, and animals once docile and peaceful began to fight amongst themselves as if they were lifelong enemies. The tranquil life the foals had known for so long was in jeopardy…

A chilly wind washed over the grounds around the house. Celestia shuddered, her wings ruffling tightly against her sides. She shifted on her hooves in an effort to keep herself warm while she waited for Sprout to get done securing the most recent covering for his crops. She glanced up at the sky and grimaced.

It was the middle of the day right now if she had to guess based on the level of light. A thick layer of clouds had obscured the sun, leaving the world around her cold, gloomy, and somehow threatening to observe. It was almost like there was something in those clouds, watching her day in and day out. She had a feeling Luna felt it too, judging by how anxious the filly seemed.

Oh, how Celestia wanted to fly up there and tear the clouds away all at once. To show both Luna and herself that there was nothing to be afraid of. Alas, she had been forced to give up on driving the weather out at this point. The last time she and Luna had tried was almost a week ago, and they had made no progress whatsoever. The clouds had become stronger with the passing of time, to the point that even when working together, the sisters were incapable of even making them budge.

Celestia glared at the clouds as they roiled overhead, making her think of a pot of boiling water in slow motion. It didn’t make any sense. She kept racking her brain for any clue or piece of knowledge she had accumulated that might shed some light on this, but every time, she came up empty-hooved.

“Alright, that should just about do it,” Sprout said, jarring Celestia’s mind away from the unpleasantness in her thoughts. She turned to survey the work they had done.

In response to the steadily worsening cold, Sprout had insisted on putting out his winter covers, just as a precaution. The crops were now safely covered by a series of wooden tiles that had been carefully placed over them and held up by wooden posts. Celestia didn’t know the finer intricacies of how they worked, all she knew for certain was that the design allowed for Sprout to open them to let the plants get their fill of sun, and close them if poor weather came rolling in.

Sprout eyed the assembled carpentry for several seconds, a dour look on his face. He heaved a heavy sigh and idly kicked at a loose stone. “Guh, I can’t believe I had to bust these things out already,” he grumbled. He wiped a hoof across his brow to get rid of some sweat.

Celestia turned to look up at him, ears drooping. She side-stepped closer to him and placed a hoof on his shoulder to show her support. He looked back down at her with a warm smile before draping a foreleg over her shoulders in a side-hug. Celestia smiled and let herself be pulled in, humming quietly.

After a few seconds, Sprout pulled back and jerked his head for the house. “Alright, there’s not a whole lot else we can do out here for now. Come on, let’s head inside, yeah?”

Celestia had no argument for that. The two turned and made their way back for the house. As they went, Celestia paused to glance back at the sky, her face contorting with dismay. She only lingered for a few seconds before scampering to catch up with her dad.

She had to resist the urge to sigh in relief once she and Sprout stepped inside. The contrast between the cold outside and the warmth inside was shocking, and Celestia could feel her muscles relaxing in response. She spotted Honey chopping up some greens for what looked to be a lunch salad. She didn’t see any sign of Luna, though.

Honey turned to them as the door swung shut. She smiled, but Celestia could see the concern behind her eyes. “Sprout. How are the crops?” she asked, putting her work aside and crossing the distance.

Sprout let out a breath through pursed lips before shrugging. “Well, they aren’t dying, so we got that going for us. Still, if temperatures keep dropping like this…”

Honey placed a hoof on his chest, silencing him before he could go into another one of his overly pessimistic spirals. Celestia playfully gagged when Honey then gave her husband a quick, affectionate kiss, killing whatever dark thoughts he still harbored just like that. Honey gave his cheek a few light claps once she pulled back. “Don’t fret, Sprout. We’ll figure something out. We always do.”

Sprout blushed slightly. He rubbed at the back of his head and coughed off to one side. “Ahem. Uh, yeah, I guess…”

Celestia rolled her eyes at the display of romance before casting her gaze about the room again. “Where’s Luna? In our room?” she asked when she still found no sign of her reclusive younger sister.

Honey nodded down at her. “Yeah. She was feeling a little tired, so I encouraged her to go and lay down for a little bit. Last I checked, she was playing with her toys on her bed,” she said simply.

Celestia eyed the door to her room for a moment before heading towards it. She looked back at her parents over her shoulder. “I’m gonna go keep her company, kay?”

“And let her know lunch is almost ready,” Honey added, making her way back to the counter. “We’re having salad. And no, I didn’t put any carrots in it, so she can rest easy.”

Celestia paused by the door and turned to face Honey with an incredulous look on her face. She smirked. “Wow. Finally giving up, huh?” she asked knowingly.

Honey pouted, then turned to nudge Sprout in the shoulder. “She’s as stubborn as her father…” she snipped.

Sprout leaned back in mock offense. “Wha- me?! Oh, come on, she spends most of her time with you! You’re just too soft on the little thing!”

“I am not!” Honey protested, puffing up her cheeks as if she were the foal in the situation.

Celestia giggled merrily at their antics before deciding to join her father’s side in the rapidly growing conflict. “Ya know, dad’s got a point. Luna’s spine is about as strong as a wet noodle…” she said slowly, though she was careful to keep her voice low enough that Luna wouldn’t hear it. As much as she loved to pick on her sister, she wasn’t in the habit of actually upsetting her if she could help it.

Sprout grinned appreciatively at Celestia while Honey just shook her head in defeat. “Ugh. Fine, fine, whatever,” she dismissed while resuming the journey to her salad-in-progress. “Just go spend time with your sister. Lunch will be ready in a little bit. I’ll let you know when it’s ready.”

“And slip a carrot in there,” Sprout added, following after her. “Or three.”

Celestia just laughed and tuned out the rest of the banter. She turned to the door and pushed it open.

Her room was swathed in darkness, as was usual when Luna was alone in it. The curtains had been pulled tight, and just like Honey had said, Luna was laying down on her bed with a series of wooden figurines slowly dancing about. They were held in her magical aura, providing the only illumination in the room. She was also holding up a rolled-up rag in the air, with one of the figures standing on it.

Luna looked up the moment Celestia entered, and her eyes lit up. “Tia!” she greeted, trying to sound cheerful. Celestia could hear the lethargy in her voice, though.

Celestia gently kicked the door shut behind her. “Hey, Lulu,” she said softly. “Mom said lunch is going to be ready in a little bit. Salad. No carrots.”

Luna’s eyes practically shone like the sun at that, and she clapped her hooves together over her chest. “Yes!”

Celestia chuckled and rolled her eyes. “I will never understand why you don’t like those. But eh. How have things been in here?”

To Celestia’s surprise, the shine in Luna’s eyes faded as if she had been struck by a reminder of something bad. She looked down at her toys. “It’s been okay... I’ve been playing with my toys.”

Celestia eyed the toys. There were five of them, all whittled into the approximate shapes of ponies. Three of them had wings. She crossed the room, her hooves barely making any noise on the wooden surface. “Telling stories to yourself again?”

Luna nodded, prodding weakly at the winged figurine on the rolled-up rag. “Mmhmm.”

Celestia paused, raising an eyebrow. She studied the figure, finding that it had once had a horn that had long since been broken off. She recalled when that had happened. Luna dropped it one winter, a few years back. She had been quite upset because the figurine was supposed to be Celestia. Until Luna had a new figurine to replace the old one, she was quite inconsolable about the fact that she had accidentally broken off her sister’s horn.

Celestia jumped up onto the bed by her sister’s side and draped a wing over her back once she was comfy. “And, what was your story about?” she asked after a moment.

Luna shook her head, setting the toys down and aside. “Not much…” she said before closing her eyes and letting out a large yawn. Celestia eyed her, waiting patiently until the yawn passed in its entirety.

“Mom said you were feeling kinda tired… you okay?” she asked after a few seconds.

Luna turned to her and nodded, a weak smile on her face. “Uh-huh. Mom said it’s because of the cold and the weather. She told me that because it’s darker outside ‘cause of the clouds, that I’m getting sleepier easier.”

Celestia slowly nodded along in understanding. “Ah, I see. I gotcha…” she muttered before looking up at the window. She frowned. “It is getting colder out there all the time…”

Luna nodded along, and Celestia could hear her stifling a quiet, anxious whimper. “It’s supposed to be warm…”

“Why? Why is it so cold?” Luna asked, shrinking down as if to hide from the world behind Celestia’s wing. “It’s summer. It was too hot outside a week ago. Why can’t it stay warm? I like the warmth… And I can’t see the stars or the moon at night. I can’t watch them dance...”

Celestia’s brow furrowed. She looked over towards the curtains, noticing how the light they let in was a cool, ominous gray, as opposed to the inspiriting gold she was used to in the day. The longer she looked, the more she began to feel like something was dreadfully wrong with what she was looking at. As if something was missing. Something vital…

She shook her head after a few moments. “I dunno, Lulu… I mean, all I can think of as to why this might be happening is that maybe there are some pegasi behind it.”

Luna looked up at her. “Oh yeah. Pegasi… Ponies with wings. They control the weather, right?”

Celestia nodded. “Mhmm. Well, wings and no horn. But yeah, they control the weather, according to mom and dad. But they aren’t supposed to be this far out. I mean, we’re a long way away from any other ponies. And I sure haven’t seen any pegasi whenever I was up in the sky…”

Celestia shrugged. “I dunno. I mean, it might be. But we’ve been dealing with wild weather our entire lives. Maybe something weird happened somewhere and the weather’s all messed up.”

That answer did not seem to give Luna much confidence. She shrank down into the mattress even further, letting off another, louder whimper of anxiety. Celestia could feel Luna quivering slightly. She looked down to see a look of fear in her sister’s eyes. Feeling her heart twist at the sight, Celestia pulled Luna closer to give her a reassuring nuzzle. Once she drew back, she put on a cocky smile. “Hey, now, come on. It’s nothing to be scared of. It’s just a little cold air, and it’ll all be gone before you know it.”

Celestia’s smirk grew. She ruffled Luna’s mane, drawing a protesting whine from the smaller foal. “Because we have mom and dad, that’s how,” Celestia said without a moment of hesitation. “They’ve dealt with cold weather before. Heck, it was snowy and stuff when they first got us. They can handle this just fine. They’ll take care of us like they always have, and always will.”

Luna’s eyes lit up hopefully. She brushed her mane back out of her face and pressed herself closer to Celestia’s side. “Promise?”

“Promise,” Celestia replied immediately, giving Luna another nuzzle. “Now stop being such a scaredy-pony, okay?”

Luna giggled at that and nuzzled her sister back in response. The two fell into silence at that point, basking in each other’s warmth and companionship. Neither said anything for quite some time, happy to just be together in the quiet.

After a few minutes, Luna‘s horn lit with magic, and she lifted one of her figures in it. It was the one missing a horn. “So… if the weather is being caused by a pegasus, that would make him the bad guy, right?”

Celestia eyed the little figuring for a few seconds. An idea came to her, and she smiled, reaching down to pick up the other figure of herself. “Yeah… and if I ever caught that big stupid-head…”

She knocked her figurine against the pegasus, drawing a tiny giggle from Luna. Celestia smiled and did it a few more times. “Then I’d fly up there and beat him up for making everything cold and you sad.”

Luna giggled louder and sat upright. “And I’d fly up there to help you!” she declared, adding her own figure to the sudden and impromptu mock fight. Celestia chuckled as she set her figure against the pegasus one.

“Yeah! And we’d fly in circles around him! Maybe he’d be bigger and better with the clouds, but does he have a horn? I don’t think so!” she declared, putting a little extra emphasis on the golden light coming from her own.

“So we’d use our magic to zap him!” Luna declared, having her figure head butt the pegasus. “Until he made the bad weather go away!”

Celestia gently took the pegasus figurine in her magic, allowing herself to become immersed in the childish fantasy. She bobbed it up and down and lowered her voice to the most masculine and evil one she could think of.

“Mwa haha! I will make the entire world cold!” the evil pegasus announced evilly. “And everypony will be forced to eat carrots and dragonflies for dinner!”

Celestia did a spin in the air for some reason. “Yeah! With our powerful magic!”

“I’d like to see you try! Mwa haha!” the evil pegasus replied before flying down at the foals.

“CHARGE!” Luna declared, flying side-by-side with Celestia until they met their adversary head-on.

It was a fierce battle. There was much butting of heads, slapping of fetlocks, tickling of tummies, and all manner of unpleasantness to be had. But it had to be done, in the name of good weather! And warmth! And sunlight!

The pegasus laughed again and grabbed onto a cloud before throwing it at Luna. She gasped and shrieked as it enveloped her in a cage of crackling electricity, holding her in place. The pegasus came to hover in front of her. “Ha! Now you will never get free! It will hurt you if you touch it! Not even your sister can save you now!”

“Oh, I am so offended and insulted by your words!” The pegasus shot back before flying up. “I will have to punish you, just as soon as I have dealt with your sister!”

“Surprise!” Celestia shouted as she brought a cloud of her own down on the pegasus’ head like a mallet. A boom of thunder was heard, and the poor winged pony fell from the sky with a comically large lump on his head, his fur blackened and smoking.

“OW! That hurt!” he yelled up as he fell to the ground below. “Curse you, Celestia! We will meet agaaaaiiiiiin…”

Celestia turned and bucked her hind legs against the cage of lightning, breaking it open, because she was just that cool and awesome. Luna flew out of the fading remains and hugged her tight. “Tia! You’re amazing!”

Celestia and Luna turned to look at one another as their impromptu little ‘battle’ drew to its epic conclusion. Neither of them said a word for several seconds.

Luna gasped as if she was shocked. “What?! But you are amazing!” she said, reaching out to shake her big sister as if she were possessed. “I mean, look at you! You’re always looking out for me when mom and dad can’t, you let me sleep on the roof so I can watch the night sky, you play with me when I’m bored, and you’re just so strong and brave!”

Celestia blinked from the sudden onslaught of praise. She could feel the tips of her ears beginning to burn, and she looked away to cough into her hoof. “Ahem… Well, I mean… I’m your big sister. I’m supposed to look after you… and, you know, boss you around.”

Suddenly, a monstrous growl tore through the room, silencing Celestia’s laughter in its tracks. Her eyes flew wide in shock, and she looked around for the source of the noise. Whatever feral beast had made that sound, it must have been colossal! And how had it gotten into their room?!

Her eyes soon fell on Luna, and her expression blanked when she saw the furious blush now adorning her face. Celestia blinked a few times as the realization clicked into place. “...Wow. You’re hungry, huh?”

Luna withdrew, hiding behind her mane. “N… n-no?” The growl came again, louder this time, and Luna visible cringed in discomfort. Celestia raised a skeptical eyebrow at her, finally cowing Luna into defeat. She sighed and nodded her head in resignation.

Celestia smiled before hopping down from the bed. “Ha! It’s fine. Lunch is probably ready anyway. C’mon,” she chirped, helping Luna down from the bed before the two departed the room.

The sight they were greeted with was quite different from what they had been expecting. Celestia blinked when she saw neither Sprout nor Honey anywhere on the first floor. However, the front door was standing wide open, and a chilly draft was weaving its way through the house, alongside the distant, cold howling of the wind.

Luna immediately shrank back, hiding behind Celestia. “W-what’s going on?” she asked anxiously, bravely peeking out to take another look. “Where are mom and dad?”

Celestia’s frown deepened, her eyes focusing on the open door. Something was wrong, she could feel it. A chilly sensation settled into the pit of her gut, making her shiver. She unfurled a wing to hold Luna back. “They’re outside… come on,” she instructed simply.

They both set off at a brisk pace. The chill in the air became increasingly pronounced the closer she got to the door. Was it just her imagination, or was it darker outside than it should have been, even with the cloud cover?

Her eyes widened, and her jaw fell open in shock once she stepped outside. Sprout and Honey were both on the front porch, their gazes angled to stare up at the sky. Celestia’s pace slowed to a snail’s crawl as she came up to stand between them, looking up at the sky as well.

Celestia blinked several times, hoping that she was just imagining it, but the visual did not go away. It was snowing. It was snowing. In summer. Summer! It hadn’t been this cold, had it?! It sure hadn’t felt like it. She hadn’t even been able to see her own breath in the air fifteen minutes ago!

“Mom? Dad?” she asked, doing her best to hide the tremble of uncertainty in her voice. She looked up at Sprout and Honey as they turned to face her.

Luna spoke next, unable to hide the quiver in her own. “What’s going on? Why is it snowing?”

Sprout and Honey exchanged a worried glance. It was Sprout that spoke. “I… I don’t know…” he muttered, clearly just as shocked and confused as the foals.

Celestia looked up at the sky, and the feeling of something staring back at her grew infinitely worse. She shuffled on her hooves and backed up a little, her wings ruffling against her sides.

Suddenly, Luna yelped in fear. “S-s-something’s up there!” she squeaked, cowering back.

“What?” Honey asked as everypony turned to look at her. Luna’s eyes were wide, and she pointed a shaking hoof up at the sky.

Sprout and Honey shared another look, while Celestia focused on her sister. She stepped forward and grabbed Luna by the shoulders to get her to focus. “Luna, what was it? Did you get a good look?”

Luna shook her head, still shaking. “N-no. I just saw it moving through the clouds. Like… like a shadow.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t just your imagination?” Honey asked after a few seconds, looking over at Luna curiously.

Luna nodded frantically. “I wasn’t imagining! Something’s up there! It’s gotta be the pegasus causing all of this bad weather!”

“What? Now, hang on just a second!” Sprout cut in, advancing on Luna. “Pegasus? Much as I wouldn’t put it past those feathered freaks to pull something like this, I haven’t seen any sign of pegasi in these parts since all of this started! Plus, if you can’t work the clouds, why would some rank-and-file pegasus be able to do it?”

To that, Luna had no answer. She looked down, shrinking under the weight of Sprout’s question. Celestia gave her dad a slightly disapproving glare. As valid as his point had been, he didn’t need to put such intensity behind it. A fact he seemed to realize, given the regretful look coming over his face.

Honey chose this moment to interject. “It doesn’t matter. We should get inside where it’s warm.”

Celestia felt a surge of alarm. She spun to face her parents. “Huh?! But it’s snowing!” she stated emphatically, thrusting a hoof at the sky. “What about the crops?! Dad, won’t the cold kill our food?! We need to do something!”

“We did do something,” Sprout replied bluntly while gesturing to the covers they had arranged earlier. “We’ve done everything we can, and I am sure as hay not letting my daughters fly up there to try and push these clouds back when they’re this darn stubborn! Now come on, listen to your mother.”

“No buts!” Sprout shot her down, raising his voice just a little to show he was being serious. He stared down at Celestia, a harsh fire in his eyes, forcing her into silent submission. After a moment, his expression softened. “I have no idea what in the world is going on out here… and I don’t want you risking yourself to try and find out, okay?”

Celestia was quiet for a few seconds before nodding her head. As much as she hated to admit it, Sprout had a point. The weather up there was beyond her power to change anymore. With a resigned sigh, she turned to head inside, bringing a reluctant Luna with her.

Celestia didn’t take her eyes away from the window for more than a few minutes at a time once everypony was inside. They ate their lunch in silence, casting routine glances at the window, watching the snowfall outside. For a mercy, the snow had yet to start sticking, and the flakes were fairly small and powdery. But given how rapidly temperatures had been dropping as of late, Celestia had a feeling that it wouldn’t take long for the snow to cling to the ground and start piling up.

What then? Celestia wondered. What would they do? She and Luna had been forbidden from trying to fight the weather anymore, and if Luna was telling the truth, there was something up there in the clouds. A shadow.

They finished eating with nary a word. Celestia could see Sprout and Honey routinely looking at one another. There was a tension in their eyes, a deep-seated anxiety that she was powerless to decipher. It was like they were waiting for something, or wanted to do something, but they were holding themselves back from doing it.

The heavy silence at the table was finally broken when Luna set down her utensils. “Thanks, mom,” she mumbled quietly. “I’m gonna head to my room.”

“Alright, Luna,” Honey replied, putting on a warm smile and giving her daughter a reassuring nod.

Luna hummed quietly but did not offer any further words in response. She merely jumped down from her seat and slinked off to her room. Celestia watched her go, a worried frown on her face. Once the door to the room was shut, she turned to Sprout and Honey. “So… is there anything we should do inside?” she asked, shifting on her haunches in a display of nervous energy.

Honey and Sprout shared a look. Some form of silent communication was passed between them before they looked back to her. Sprout shook his head with a small smile. “Nothing that I’ll need your help with, kiddo. Why don’t you go and keep Luna company?”

“Huh?” Celestia asked, tilting her head. “But- but it’s snowing. I mean, there’s gotta be something I can do around the house, right?”

“I can take care of most of that,” Honey replied with a sage nod. “And so can Sprout. You helped plenty enough earlier. Right now, though, I think your sister needs you more than we do.”

“Yeah… she seems pretty shaken,” Sprout agreed, his brow furrowing. “And if she saw something up there for real, I can’t say I blame her…”

Celestia looked back and forth between her parents for a few more seconds, her brow furrowing. It didn’t feel right, going and doing nothing in her room when something like summer-time-snow was going on outside, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized that there wasn’t much for her to do inside anyway. That had always been Honey’s domain, and she managed it mostly on her own in all the years Celestia had been here.

Then she remembered the fear in Luna’s eyes when she’d claimed she saw something moving, and any lingering doubts about what she should do died. Celestia nodded in understanding and rose from her seat. “Alright. Just let me know if you need me to do anything, okay?”

“We will,” Sprout assured her with a nod. “If something needs your magic touch, I’ll come get you. But right now, you just go and be a kid. Leave the doom and gloom to the big ponies.”

Celestia managed a tiny smile at the light tone Sprout put on, though she could sense he was forcing it to try and cheer her up. Still, it worked, and she wasn’t about to complain about it. She turned and made her way back to her room.

The door swung open with a quiet creaking noise, and she found Luna sitting in the middle of the room, looking up at the window. The curtains had been opened, allowing the gloomy light from outside to seep in and affording an unobstructed view of the snow falling from the sky.

Celestia’s brow furrowed as she closed the door behind her. “Hey… You okay?” she called quietly.

Luna looked back at Celestia, her eyes putting her fear on full display. “I’m scared…” she whispered. “There’s something up there. I know there is…”

“The bad pegasus, right?” Celestia asked as she came to her sister’s side.

Luna nodded, leaning into Celestia for comfort and support. Celestia wrapped a wing around her, keeping her close and lending her what warmth she could. Neither of them said anything for quite a while, just staring up through the window at the clouds beyond. It was an unsettling sight, yet somehow captivating…

Celestia’s lips slowly curled up into a small smile. “...You know, I always kinda liked the snow,” she suddenly said, drawing a confused glance from Luna.

Celestia shrugged. “I mean, sure, it always kinda overstays its welcome. It can get really irritating trying to walk around in it, especially when it gets deep. And it’s cold. I like my stuff warm, you know. But… I dunno. Something about when snow first falls…”

A nostalgic smile came over her face as her mind wandered back to a morning many years ago. She had woken up to find that there was snow covering the land outside, accumulating on the branches of the trees. She was little, and it had been the first winter snow she remembered with any clarity.

“When the snow is fresh and new, and nopony’s stepped in it, it’s like… Like this big, perfect white blanket all over the world, you know? And how it all gathered on the trees… It’s beautiful. I remember, this one time, I woke up one morning, before you and I were doing anything with the weather. I went outside with dad, and it was like I had stepped out of real-life and into some sort of enchanted winter wonderland.”

Luna began to smile, and Celestia felt her heart warming at the sight. Her impromptu trip down memory lane was serving its purpose then. Luna snuggled closer to her. “Enchanted snow? Like that story mom used to tell us about Frosty?”

Celestia snorted in amusement. “Frosty the Snowpony? Heh, haven’t heard that story in a while… Er, yeah, sure, like that, just with less dancing and singing.”

Luna giggled, her eyes closing as she took in Celestia’s warmth. “I like that story… mom made it funny.”

“Mom’s good at a lot of things,” Celestia agreed, looking up through the window again. She hadn’t been lying, she did love the snow when it first fell… But not this time. This snow was wrong. Unnatural. And yet again she felt as if it was watching her.

Celestia blinked and focused on a small stretch where the clouds had visibly thinned out. She could have sworn she just saw something moving there. She stared for several long seconds, but she didn’t see anything else. Maybe she was just imagining it.

Celestia’s heart all but stopped in her chest when the movement passed again. She went rigid as the faintest hint of a form made itself known in the clouds. A silhouette, moving through the clouds, shifting unnaturally. She had never seen a pegasus before, but she knew they were a lot like her and Luna. Whatever that was, it was not a pegasus. Or a pony of any kind.

Celestia jumped when Luna’s voice reached her ears. She looked down to see the confused fear in her sister’s eyes. Luna blinked, her anxiety growing worse when she saw the dread in Celestia’s. “What’s wrong?”

Celestia quickly looked back up at the clouds, towards the… thing she had seen, wanting to point it out. But when she looked, there was nothing there. It was as if there was nothing there to begin with. It was just a patch of clouds, faintly illuminated and glowing by the light of the sun shining on them from beyond. The glow soothed Celestia’s thoughts, and she took in a deep breath to calm herself down.

“Maybe it was just a trick of the light? Yeah, that must be it,” she told herself before smiling down at Luna. Her sister tilted her head at her in confusion, before Celestia leaned down to give her an affectionate nuzzle. “Sorry about that. My thoughts went and ran away with me for a bit.”

Luna seemed assured by this and snuggled closer to Celestia again, and the two lapsed into a companionable silence. Every so often, though, Celestia glanced back up at the window, looking for any sign of the thing she had seen.

Rise and Shine

by Skijarama

VI - Creeping Cold