//------------------------------//
// Boots on the ground 
// Story: Sunshine and Reindeer 
// by Casketbase77 
//------------------------------//

Reinbow Deer sniffed the patch of lichen and sighed. She already knew how the plant would taste: Bitter, oily, rough on the tongue. Plus it would sit like a lump in her stomach after she choked it down. But greenery was much too scarce in the tundra this time of year. It was this or pine needles, indigestion or bleeding gums. What a wonderful menu. Reinbow felt her nostrils reflexively seal themselves as she tore a mouthful of the crusty plant. Then she munched melancholically, reminding herself this was better than starvation.

“Reinbow! Reinbow!”

Ever quick to the draw, Reinbow Deer sidestepped as a fawn-sized blur rocketed over the patch of ice where she’d just been standing, embedding itself in a nearby snowdrift with a muffled whumph. For a moment, the tundra was silent and still except for Reinbow Deer’s continued crunching on her mouthful of moss. Then her junior herdmate popped out of the snowdrift and scrambled to stand up, grinning goofily as she shook stray snowflakes off her withers.

“Reinbow, guess what? I talked to Luna Clause last night!”

Reinbow Deer swallowed her sorry meal and did her best to look at ease. “You sure, sport? She doesn’t normally come around outside of December, ya know.”

The orange fawn shook her head vigorously. “I didn’t mean she visited me in the, like, for real way. She visited me in my dream and said I'm a good little reindeer who deserved to know some secrets.” 

“A dream visit, huh? That’s even more farfetched than her visiting this part of the world in October, Boots.”

The younger deer, whose name was actually Caraboo, stuck her tongue out. “Boots” was a pet name that had certainly been cute a few seasons ago when she was just a yearling. But she was almost a fully grown doe now. She didn’t like being inf… infantil… oh what was the word. Haltershy used it all the time to describe the way Angel Snowrabbit treated the herd’s younger members.

“I don’t like being infantilized, Reinbow.”

“Right right, my bad. You’re a very mature grownup who talks about very mature grownup things.” She smiled teasingly. “Now tell me more of your dream about Luna Clause, Boots.”

“It wasn’t a regular dream!” Caraboo stomped a thin hoof on the frozen ground indignantly. “She really came to me!”

“Mm-hm.” Reinbow chuffed, partially from amusement and partially from lichen indigestion.

“She did! The real Luna Clause!” 

Reinbow Deer kicked absently at the snow. Luna Clause was an old folk tale meant to make fawns behave. Don't fight with the rest of the herd and share any food or shelter you find. Then maybe, just maybe... Luna Clause will leave you a gift on the night of the December Solstice. At least, that's what Spitflaker told Reinbow last year before hoofing her a trinket to sneak into Caraboo’s sleeping embrace. 

The news had definitely been disappointing, but Reinbow wasn't really surprised. She'd been getting kinda suspicious that every Solstice gift she'd ever gotten was made of nibbled stone, shed antlers, or tree bark. Those things were common tripping hazards around the tundra, and didn't really fit the story of mythical materials being made into toys by little helper Breezies in a castle on the equator.

There was no magic in the world. Maybe there had been generations ago, but there certainly wasn't any now. There were short summers, long winters, and of course, endless unpleasant bunches of-

“Oh boy, lichen!” Caraboo dug into the patch between the two of them, and Reinbow let her. She eyed the treeline and wondered whether pine needles really did hurt her mouth as badly as she remembered.

"Hey Reinbow?" Caraboo wiped her mouth off with a forelimb. "What's a reincarnation?"

Reinbow wrinkled her muzzle. "I dunno, Boots. Never heard anydeer use that word before."

"Drat. Me neither."

Reinbow’s ears went flat, as they often did when she got concerned. "Then why'd you ask?"

"I told you, Luna Clause came to me in a dream last night and said some stuff. She said I'm a reincarnation. And so are you."

Reinbow got another chuff out of that. She couldn't imagine any creature, past or present, able to run as fast as she did.

"Don't laugh at me," Caraboo pouted. "Luna Clause said you would and I told her no, you're cooler than that. Don't make me a liar to Luna Clause! I still want to her to bring me a gift this year!"

"Okay Boots, I'm sorry. It's just... I dunno. How come she didn't come to you sooner? How come this is the first dream you've ever had of her?"

For the first time since slamming into the snowbank Caraboo grinned. "She said you'd ask that. She also said the answer is because magic wasn't returned to the world until yesterday."

Reindeer blinked. "C-can you prove that, Boots?”

"Sure can! Follow me!"

Caraboo bounded off into the treeline, and Reinbow followed taking shaky steps. 

Caraboo lacked friends her own age, so she often orbited older deer. Most tolerated her because those short legs meant predators would catch her before them. Reinbow looked after Caraboo for the opposite reason: She was a fast enough runner for both of them, even after losing precious seconds to load the fawn onto her back. Even so, Reinbow didn't like tempting fate.

"Boots??" Tree trunks bare of bark were the only things in view. "Boots, where are you? The woods aren't safe!"

"Over here!" Caraboo didn't sound very worried about alerting Timberwolves or waking any hibernating Ursa. But Reinbow was, so she turned on a dime before speeding in the direction of the call. "And the woods are safe, Reinbow. Magic is back, which means-"

'I'm here, I'm here. For Faust's sake please keep your volume down."

Caraboo nodded sheepishly, then went back to digging in the dirt of the clearing she'd settled in.

"What're you looking for?" 

"The tip of the castle!" Caraboo's muzzle pushed away a few frozen clods of dirt so her tiny hooves could dig deeper. "Luna Clause had to talk fast towards the end because I was about to wake up, but she said the tundra is on top of the Crystal Empire, which is an old pony kingdom-"

"Boots..." Reinbow's voice was quiet but not soft.

"-whose magic is why the trees grow here and nowhere else-"

"Boots, c'mon..."

"-so if that's gotta be where her castle is! It’s where her helper Breezies make toys and where she stays during the year, and where-"

"Caraboo, stop for a second and look at yourself!"

Reinbow never ordered anyone else around, so Caraboo flinched and froze. Holding her hunched position, she was suddenly aware of the topsoil caking her legs, chest, and face. Her shoulders ached from her small muscles and the meager meal that was fueling them. Worst of all, Reinbow was casting a shadow was over her while looking either sad or angry. Maybe both mixed together.

"Please Boots, you're in Flurry Heart Forest, covered in dirt, babbling about a dream you had last night. You don't know what's real and what's not. The day you do, I'll be there to help you through it, but for now we need to get back to the herd and away from these dangerous tree-."

"I faked being asleep last year on the Solstice."

Reinbow Deer shivered and it wasn't from the cold. "Y-you did?"

"Yeah. I faked being asleep because I wanted to meet Luna Clause and thank her for bringing gifts to everyone every year. But you know who showed up instead?"

Reinbow Deer looked away.

"You did. And you tucked an antlered headband into my arms so I could wear it the next morning and feel like a real grown up reindeer."

Caraboo still had nubs on her head, even though every other member of the herd had grown prongs at a much earlier age. Reinbow was no craftworker, but she’d saved some discarded spring antlers all summer to tie them to a headband. It was the least she could do to make Caraboo smile on Solstice Morning. And smile Caraboo had.

"I know what's real, Reinbow. Last night's dream was real. And so is your niceness towards me. So please... please please please... help me dig?"

Reinbow Deer's stomach gurgled. She wasn't properly fed for this. And even if she was, she was built for running, not working. Then again, Caraboo didn't seem to be built for anything. Yet there she was, elbows deep in treasure hunting. What was Reinbow's excuse? 

"Okay, Boots. I'll help you dig. But only til it gets dark. Then we have to go back to Spitflaker and the others, whether we've found anything or not. Deal?"

Caraboo didn't answer because she was already vigorously shoveling.

Reinbow sighed and knelt down on the opposite end of the hole. "You do know we're probably not going to find a castle full of toy-making Breezies, right?"

"We'll find something. I know we will."

Reinbow nodded and dug in. Periodically, one of them found a chunk of buried ice that had to be heaved out of the hole and tossed to the side.

Neither Reinbow nor Caraboo noticed a faint glow coming from the discarded pieces. Almost as if the piles weren't ice at all, but crystals from a long lost pony empire, steadily warming back to life.