An Unexpected Winter Journey

by Admiral Biscuit


Chapter 3

An Unexpected Winter Journey
Chapter 3
Admiral Biscuit
For Comma Typer, Jinglemas 2022

The pair hesitated as a velvety nose poked out between a copse of trees, followed by a thin muzzle and antlers. Rain Shine’s horn started glowing—she’d never seen such a creature before, and wasn’t yet sure if it was a threat or not.

Hayseed, meanwhile, stopped and waved at it. “Hey, Blackthorn.”

“Hayseed.” He nodded his head and turned to look at Rain Shine, who quickly snuffed her horn.

“That there’s Rain Shine,” Hayseed said. “She’s a Kirin.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Blackthorn offered.

“What brings you out on the road?”

Blackthorn sighed. “King Aspen’s in one of his moods, things got shouty, and I thought I might run off some of the stress before we wound up butting antlers, y’know?” He lowered his voice, almost—but not quite—low enough to prevent Rain Shine from overhearing. “He gets this way every Yule, can’t decide what presents to give his wives.”

“Little late to be thinking ‘bout now.”

“Tell me about it.” Blackthorn snorted. “I already got everything I’m gonna give mine, laces and ribbons and fruitcakes. The kind of things that make a doe happy—good food and things to look pretty.” He glanced back over to Rain Shine. “So . . . where are the two of you going? Ponyville?”

Hayseed nodded happily. “She got off at the wrong train station, she’s got to get to Ponyville for Hearth’s Warming on account of having gifts for Applejack and Fluttershy, and—”

“I love Fluttershy.” He turned his head back into the woods. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

Rain Shine and Hayseed watched as he turned and ran off, his tail flagging as he leapt a downed tree.

•••

Five minutes later, he returned, a woven basket balanced on his back. “Fruitcakes and ribbons and lace,” he explained, unpacking the basket into Rain Shine’s panniers. “For Fluttershy and Applejack. And the rest of them, too. I made the fruitcake, it’s all good winter berries and buds, they’ll love it. Tell her that Blackthorn sends his regards.”

Then with another flick of his tail, he was gone, racing down the road.

“What an interesting creature,” Rain Shine said.

Hayseed nodded. “Deer’ve got this whole section of forest, it’s their kingdom. It’s part of the Everfree where ponies don’t go. Some years ago a minotaur was going to rip it all up and build an amusement park and the deer stopped them, along with Applejack and Fluttershy and Princess Twilight and her friends. I heard that the minotaur got eaten by a hydra.”

“Really?”

“Everypony says so.”

“So is the forest dangerous? Could we get eaten by a hydra?”

He shook his head. “It ain’t dangerous so long as you don’t go in it. Or if you have friends who live there, like the deer. I wouldn’t go wandering off the road just anywhere, though; there’s all sorts of dangerous creatures who live in and around the Everfree. Best to stay on the path and not get in anypony’s way.”

•••

Staying exactly on the road wasn’t possible; some wind-blown drifts covered it entirely, and they’d tread off to the side to avoid them.

Hayseed had decent knowledge of the road, but it wasn’t exhaustive, as Rain Shine discovered when he fell into a ditch.

The two of them had long since grown accustomed to drifts springing up across from open clearings, and the land alongside the road looked perfectly flat, an illusion caused by the blowing snow. 

Hayseed took two steps off the road and then vanished entirely. It was just like a magic trick—he was there and then an instant later he wasn’t.

Rain Shine jerked back. The walk had reached the point where it had gone from ‘interesting’ to ‘tedious’, and the two of them had run out of casual chatter, so they were mostly walking in silence, unless Hayseed wanted to tell her about a new landmark.

She didn’t really know what sorts of powers the different tribes of ponies had. Summer Chills had told her about some; she knew that some ponies could teleport. Starlight Glimmer teleported a lot. She also knew that earth ponies were stronger than they looked, something which Hayseed had illustrated for her.

Then she heard a muffled voice through the snow and moved closer—now the pony-sized hole was obvious. A snow-dusted Hayseed sat at the bottom of it, pawing at the snow.

“Are you okay?”

“Nothing busted but my dignity. Weren’t expecting to not have ground underhoof.”

She lit her horn and pulled him out, setting him down on the other side of the snow drift.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Rain Shine didn’t know how to teleport, but she could bash her way through the drift, and did, rejoining him on the other side.

“Fergot that there’s sometimes ditches,” he explained, then he looked back at the Kirin-sized hole she’d bashed through the snowdrift. “You think that’d be easier? You could lead.”

“It is easier to walk around, so long as nopony falls into a hole.” Rain Shine looked down the road, where she could see another big drift before the road was protected by trees again. “Does anypony clear this road?”

“Sooner or later,” Hayseed said. “Might be a while, on account of Hearth’s Warming. Crew works out of Ponyville and another crew works out of Seven Top; they’ll meet somewhere in the middle. They’ll roll out the snow and shovel out some of the bigger drifts. Sometimes the pegasi’ll help out, they’ll set up winds to help blow it clear if they can.”

•••

In Rain Shine’s valley, the sky stayed light long after the sun had disappeared behind the surrounding mountains. Not here. It got dusky and then it got all the way dark.

Hayseed didn’t seem too bothered by the lack of light; Rain Shine lit her horn just the same. It would help them see the path.

With the setting of the sun, the wind picked up again, blowing the snow around and obscuring what little view they had.

Rain Shine hated to ask how much further it was, but: “How much further to Ponyville?”

Hayseed shrugged. “Well, I dunno exactly where we are, on account of not being able to see much past my muzzle. We crossed that crick a while back, and that’s about an hour from Ponyville on a summer day. So I reckon from here we’ll be there in an hour . . . do you need a break?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Say, that’s a really neat trick you can do with your horn. Most unicorns I know can make it glow, I guess, but you’ve got stripes in yours.”

“It’s just the way we Kirin are. The light’s not bothering you, is it?”

“Not a bit. It’s kinda pleasant, and it’s helping me see where to put my hooves.”

The two were walking side-by-side now; the forest was close, bare branches overhanging the path. The snow was sparser on the ground, and her horn-light did show occasional fallen branches that they had to step over.

“This ain’t my favorite section of the Everfree,” Hayseed admitted. “'Specially at night. Sometimes there’s—”

He never finished that thought; a timberwolf came charging out of the forest, its glowing green eyes shrouded by the snow haze until it was too late.

Hayseed rolled out of the way as its jaws snapped shut. Rain Shine flicked her ears around, listening for any other unexpected foes as Hayseed scrambled back to his hooves.

“There’ll be more,” he warned.

Sure enough, another pair charged out of the woods. Rain Shine grabbed one with her aura and tossed it against a tree where it shattered into a cloud of rotten sticks, raining down to the forest floor.

Hayseed bucked the one attacking him right in the snout, tearing its head apart.

“They can regenerate—run.”

Rain Shine looked around her; she could see more glowing green eyes appearing in the woods.

Despite his short legs, Hayseed was a fast runner. He took off down the road, his hooves kicking up clods of snow, and Rain Shine raced along behind him. She turned her head back: the timberwolves were following, and they, too, had a good running pace. They’d gotten a head start, but the timberwolves were catching up.

The leader nipped at her heels and she kicked back, sending him tumbling. That slowed them, but as their leader got back up, they picked up the pursuit again. 

Hayseed was galloping flat-out, and then he tripped over a branch that was across the road. He stumbled, almost recovered, and then slid through the snow on his belly.

Rain Shine slid to a stop and turned to face the pack. They also halted, momentarily confused.

She took the opportunity to release her belly band and toss her panniers aside, hoping that fruitcakes weren’t fragile, and then she and the timberwolves faced off.

“If you want him,” she muttered, ‘Come and get him.”

They hesitated, their eyes regarding Rain Shine. The leader snorted and blew green flames from his nostrils; he pawed at the ground and swelled up the sticks on his back, making himself look bigger. She held steady, keeping her eyes locked on his.

Her ears snapped around at the last second. He was already airborne, and he bit at her neck and clawed at her back and her scales protected both.

But it knocked her off balance and distracted her; a moment later she was dogpiled by the pack of timberwolves.

They had no idea she was hoping they’d do that.

All of the Kirin had gotten good at channeling their Nirik form, mostly focusing on keeping it suppressed whenever their emotions were running high. Some of them, like Autumn Blaze, had gotten skilled at transforming on demand.

Rain Shine hadn’t, and as she’d faced them she had a moment of doubt that she’d be able to turn Nirik if she needed to. Claws raking along her barrel and teeth gnashing for her throat were powerful motivators, and she instantly transformed into a raging balefire inferno, bright enough that Hayseed held a foreleg over his eyes.

All the snow around her flashed to steam, briefly enshrining her in an electric blue cloud, and then the fight was over. The remaining timberwolves fled to the winds, yipping in terror.

Burn it all. Teach them a lesson. She let the anger leave her, let it sputter and die as her flame guttered out.

At first, the snow steamed and hissed as she walked back towards Hayseed, then she had cooled down enough to not melt the road clear. Off in the distance she could still see the flames licking at one unfortunate timberwolf.

Hayseed was still trying to blink the spots out of his eyes as she picked her panniers back up and strapped them around her barrel.

“That was mighty impressive. I . . . I didn’t think you were strong enough to make it all the way to Ponyville on your own hooves, I thought I might have to carry you some of the way.”

She laughed, dispelling the tension that still hung over the road like a cloud. “I don’t think you’re strong enough.”

“I’m stronger than I look.”

“You’re braver than you look. Have you encountered timberwolves before?”

He nodded.

“Alone?”

He nodded again. “Got this scar on my leg from one of ‘em. Take the leader down, don’t show no fear, and they leave you alone. Safer to have a couple of ponies, though. They don’t like to attack groups, just stalk along in the hopes of getting a straggler.” He reached out to her, hesitated, then ran his hoof down her back, feeling her scales. “I shoulda known that you were a mighty warrior, why else would you be wearing armor?”

“They’re natural,” Rain Shine explained. “Like dragon scales.”

“And the blue fire, was that some kind of spell? I seen unicorns make fire afore, but never blue.”

“Some kind of spell.” Rain Shine explained her Nirik form. It wasn’t something she was usually comfortable sharing, but since the two of them had gotten to know each other—and faced down a pack of timberwolves together—she felt it was only right to share the bad with the good.

When she was done, Hayseed chuckled. “Well, shoot. Here I was worryin’ about you and you’re more’n capable of taking care of yourself.”