It was well known that many Ponies disappeared into the snow and frozen wastes as the "Great Winter" the Windigos brought as the tribes fought with each other, these Ponies had been believed to be lost for over a thousand years.
But this wasn't the case.
To understand the story we must go back in time to before the Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi united in the first Heart's Warming.
The story begins with a Unicorn Noble named Shadow Flare, a young Stallion born to one of the most powerful families at the time. His coat was a midnight blue with a sapphire mane and tail, both with a single silver streak. His eyes were a metallic gold that shined with intelligence and his magic was silver. Shadow was considered to be very handsome as his darker colors really stood among the usually brightly colored Ponies and his charming and friendly smile only added to that.
However, Shadow was something of an outcast even among his own family thanks to a few things, the first being his love of hunting and enjoyment of eating meat with the former being his special talent; a Hunting Sword crossed over a crossbow. The second thing was that unlike other Nobles, he often hung around the common Ponies rather than his class which only further caused problems among his family. Shadow wasn't to fond of his family either due to his father's arrogance and sense of superiority, his mother's addiction to throwing huge parties for her "friends", and his sister how was in Shadow's own words; "A cold and black hearted witch."
This all came to ahead when the Great Winter set in and the Nobles fled before the white wall, leaving behind their servants and those they saw as their lessers. All but one, Shadow Flare had always had a deep sense of compassion and saw the whole split tribe thing as stupid and backwords. While this didn't get him any friends among the Nobles, he did earn the loyalty of those "lessers" and found himself among like-minded Ponies from the three tribes. While his family and the other Nobles fled, Shadow stayed. His father disowned him on the spot but Shadow simply said "No hairs out of tail."
Shadow did what he could to keep his followers alive in the harsh cold, showing them how to hunt and make warm clothing, teaching them how to work together to survive the winter and using his magic to keep them warm. This went on for months before Shadow and his followers found themselves in an abandoned mine that was quickly fixed up to be their shelter, while he wasn't able to save all of his followers Shadow had given his all for them. But it had taken a toll on him, his midnight blue coat had greatly faded to a bluish-grey while his sapphire mane and tail had lost all color, the single silver streak all but gone in the grey mess. His metallic gold eyes had faded to a dull gold and his silver magic was almost lost all color, his body had also gone from the well built frame from before to a weak and frail body. Shadow could barely move now and relied on his Ponies to help him, it soon became clear to them all that even if the Great Winter would end that Shadow would not live to see it for he had given his all to help his Ponies at the cost of his own health.
Shadow coughed hard as he laid on his back with a thick blanket over his chest as a fire cracked in the background, his head being help in the hooves of an Earth Pony Mare named Wild Rose as a Pegasus Stallion held a cup of water to Shadow's mouth, Wild Rose carefully tilting his head so he could drink. All round them were Shadow's Ponies, all of which looked very sad and quite a few were openly crying. A Unicorn Mare named Star Bright turned to an Earth Pony Stallion named Healing Green.
"Isn't there anything we can do Green?" Star asked as she held and rubbed Shadow's right foreleg, Green shook his head sadly.
"No, there's nothing more we can do. His body is too weak now and his sickness is moving faster, I'm afraid to say he wouldn't last for an hour at best, let alone the night." It was clearly quite painful for him to say from the look on his face, Shadow then spoke up.
"So this is the end huh? I guess it isn't so bad." He paused then coughed and hacked as those closest to him rushed to help, the attack only last for a second but Shadow pulled his foreleg away only to see a bit of blood on it. There were gasps and the Ponies stared in horror and fear. Shadow slowly spoke again.
"Well my friend, it seems that I on my last legs, I'm sorry I can't go further." Wild Rose leaned down and rubbed his chin.
"My Lord, you need to save your energy." Shadow just smiled softly.
"I've told you that you don't need to call me that Rose, and it doesn't matter now. As Green said I only have an hour at best, so let me say what I need to say before I pass, please."
"...Okay." Rose softly said as she began to cry, leaning Shadow up so he could see more of his Ponies.
"My Ponies, my friends." He started, "We all knew that this would come, with me giving my all for you. Now it has caught up to me and my health is failing, it wouldn't be long now before I close my eyes for the final time."
He gave them a weak but joyful smile.
"And I have no regrets, I would do it again in a heartbeat. But now it is time for me to let go, I've given all I could to you so I only ask one thing for you." His Ponies looked at each other, nodded their heads and looked back at Shadow.
"Ask away Shadow." A Pegasus Mare said.
"Look after each other for me, we survived this long by leaning on each other. We proved to ourselves that our tribes can co-exist with each other, that this whole division was wrong. We might be the last Ponies alive, let's not let that be in vain, whether or not this winter ends, show the world that we are not done yet and we will not go quietly into the dark. Show them all that above all odds we survived, show them that they were wrong."
Shadow let out a few short coughs.
"Can you do that for me?"
"We will Shadow, we will." Was the answer as his Ponies came closer, gathering around their Lord until their wasn't an inch of space between them, the Foals carefully crawling on Shadow, hugging and nuzzling him as gently as they could. Shadow smiled weakly as his head was laid down on a pillow, Rose still holding it.
"Thank you, all of you."
Shadow closed his eyes as his breathing began to slow, smiling despite knowing he was dying. As he said before, he had no regrets. Before he fully relaxed to let death take him though, a bright light filled the room.
Then he knew only darkness.
Shadow blinked as he opened his eyes, surprised at the action. Shouldn't he be dead now? He drew in a breath only to be more surprised at how easily it came, since the sickness took root he would have trouble even breathing. As his head cleared he noticed he was still on his bed covered by the blanket, the room around him was mostly empty expect for the fire which still burned brightly, and tending to it was Wild Rose and her daughter Lilly Garden.
"Rose... Lilly...?" Shadow said, his voice raw and scratchy.
Both Earth Ponies heads snapped back towards him, and what had to have been the biggest and brightest smiles he had ever seen appeared on their faces.
"Lord Flare!"
"Uncle Flare!"
Next thing Shadow knew was a Filly latched onto his face crying happily as she hugged and nuzzled for all she was worth followed quickly by Lilly's mother hugging him around the neck and nuzzled his ear. Shadow for his part was just stunned for a second, then smiled as he relaxed into their embrace and hugged them back.
"Happy to see you too." When they pulled apart he asked, "What happened? I thought I was dying."
Rose turned to Lilly and asked her if she could alert the others, the Filly jumped happily and rushed out of the room shouting "HE'S AWAKE!!" at the top of her lungs as Rose picked up a cup of water and tilted Shadow's head while bringing it to his lips.
"Here, drink."
Shadow did, signing as the cool liquid soothed his throat. Rose had just laid his head down again when the thundering of hooves filled the air as Shadow's Ponies charged in, each going to and hugging him as hard as they could. Shadow only smiled and hugged them back, after he had hugged all of them at least once he spoke.
"So... what happened? I remember closing my eyes to wait for death and seeing a bright light, and now I woke up still alive and apparently healed of my sickness."
Healing Green chuckled as he walked over to Shadow.
"Tell us my Lord, how do you feel?"
"I... feel good, great actually. Like I haven't felt in months."
"Well my Lord, to answer your question. That bright light was real, and it flowed into you healing the damage to your body. The Great Winter is over, a new spring has come."
Shadow blinked, then a large smile appeared.
"We survived long enough huh? Enough for a new start." He then looked confused, "How long was I out?"
"Three days." Rose said, "We've been busy setting up a camp until we can find a more permanent place." Green Spoke again.
"The spring wasn't the only thing that happened either, let me help you up. Could somepony get a mirror?"
Shadow was helped to his hunches and looked into the large vanity mirror they had salvaged some time ago, his jaw hit the floor.
He looked as he did before everything happened, his coat, mane, tail and eyes had returned to their full colors, in fact they looked richer and brighter than before. His body had filled out again, and his magic after a quick test shine brighter than before. But those weren't why his jaw had hit the floor, the reason for that was his back;
Two large feathery wings the same color as his coat sat proudly, he looked back at them and brought a hoof up. They were real as he felt new sensations flow through them, he didn't have words for it as he reached up and felt his horn which was still there but was now a little longer. He didn't know what happened but he knew what he was now.
"I'm... I'm an Ailcorn?? How???"
The Ponies around him just shrugged, having no clue either. It took some time for Shadow to recover from his shock, after which his Ponies started helping him get use to his body again. Before he had been a half-head taller than the average Stallion, now he was a full head taller and was not use to it as more then once he hit his horn on something and he kept falling over from his legs being longer and a little uncoordinated from the transformation. Eventually he was able to walk more or less fine on his own and fold his wings against his back as he stepped into the sunlight. The snow was gone now, replaced with lush green fields and forests as a calm wind blew soothingly over him. He just took it all in, enjoying the new feeling of the breeze flowing through his wings.
"Well my Lord, what should we do first?" Rose said as she game up to him.
"Let's find a good spot for a new home, and see where it goes from there."
Rose giggled at the dopey smile Shadow had.
"As you wish my Lord. By the way, as we were gathering food we met a tribe of Ponies we'd never seen before."
Shadow looked at her in surprise.
"Oh?"
"Yes, it took a bit for us to understand them but they call themselves "Thestrals", and their leader wishes to speak to you when you're ready."
"Alright then, send a message I'll speak to them in a few days. I want to make sure my Ponies are on their hooves."
"Will do my Lord, we'll send a messenger out soon."
Rose and the other walked away as they went to work in the camp as Shadow looked to the sky, he was unsure of what the future would bring but he knew he would be with his Ponies every step of the way.
A thousand Years Later
Canterlot Royal Palace
Sometime after the first Nightmare Night after Luna's return
Princess Celestia let out a weary sign as she entered her personal chamber, happy that her work for the day was done and all that was left was to lower the sun. But she wouldn't need to do that for a short while so she went over to her bed and laid down as she pulled some papers, soon finding one she had seen before but hadn't had time to look into.
It was an old report from the Griffin Kingdoms about a small country that bordered Equestria to the west, from what Celestia have heard the county was home to larger-than-normal Ponies of all tribes that hunted large and dangerous creatures for a living. She had hear about this place many times over the centuries but was never able to look into it, mainly because of her duties to Equestria and her Ponies. The Griffin Ambassador had spoken rather fondly of the place seemly named the "Hunting Grounds" when Celestia had asked and she couldn't help but wonder about the place.
Celestia knew that this county was an unknown to her but at the same time they had never threatened Equestria so she saw no reason to do the same, in fact now that she had time to look into it maybe she could open contact with them. The more she thought about it the more she liked it. But until she could set time aside she would be unable to visit, but what about Twilight and her friend.
Celestia still remembered what had happened with the Zebra Zecora and had a thought.
'This could be a good experience for them, learn about a new culture and expand their horizons a bit.'
With that thought she set the paper down and picked up a scroll and quill.
"Dear Twilight Sparkle."