//------------------------------// // XX - Across Frozen Hills // Story: Rise and Shine // by Skijarama //------------------------------// Drawn to the fire the elder sister lit, a mare, and her son - unicorns far away from their homeland - stumbled upon the desperate foals. Though shocked by their unusual nature, this mare was swift to cast aside the superstitions that had haunted the sisters so far. With a warm smile and compassion in her eyes, she held out her hoof, offering to guide the foals. And in so doing, saved their very lives. The next hour or so became a frantic flurry of activity. The group had preparations to make before they could depart. Starshine had suggested that they pick their way through the buildings in search of anything and everything that could be of use. Celestia had tried to tell her that there wasn’t any food or tools - aside from what Mudflat had in his pantry, of course - but Starshine had insisted. She claimed that they could get plenty of mileage out of things besides food and tools. Celestia packed up what few things she and Luna had to their name, and agreed to meet back up with Starshine at the edge of Flatstone, by Mudflat’s old house. And that was where Celestia went first. Taking up Luna in her magic, she set off from their shelter and flew to the edge of town. Starshine and Starglow would meet up with them soon enough, she wagered. She touched down gently outside of the old house. “Alright. Here we are,” she said, setting Luna down on her back. Luna held on tight, her eyes drifting this way and that. “...This is where he lived?” she asked after a moment. She looked up at the second floor. Celestia nodded. “Yeah. I’ll run a quick search of the place while we wait for Shine.” Luna blinked. “We’re taking his stuff?” Celestia was quiet for a moment. She looked down, then off to one side at a small mound of snow and dirt piled up by the side of the stairs. The mound was marked with a trio of fence posts sticking up like the prongs of a fork. It was the old stallion’s grave, one she had dug out for him after he had died. She didn’t know much about the burial practices of the Earth Ponies, but she knew at least that graves had some sort of marker. Not knowing what else to use, she had stuck a fence post at the head of the grave. She could imagine Mudflat ranting and raving at her from beyond the grave for her ignorance and stupidity. It obviously wasn’t a dignified grave, but it was the best she could offer with the tools at hoof. She could only hope that, someday, if the snow ever went away, then his family would come back and give the stallion the burial he deserved. Celestia sighed and looked ahead. “We don’t have a choice. And he isn’t going to be getting any use out of it anymore,” she reasoned before starting up the steps. “Are you sure?” Luna questioned uncomfortably. “It doesn’t feel right, taking from somepony who can’t even say no anymore.” Celestia grunted. “He gave me the go-ahead. I think he’d be glad that his stuff’s going to good use,” she said, though she had no way of knowing if she was correct about that. Luna hummed quietly, clearly just as unconvinced. Neither of them pressed the matter, though. Regardless of Mudflat’s opinion on the matter, the old coot couldn’t stop them, and they needed these supplies. The front room of the home was just as Celestia had left it. Snow had piled up in the door frame and dusted the floorboards below the shattered windows. The broken remains of the furniture and the scorch marks left by her fires lay scattered about, all cold and pale. A chill ran down Celestia’s back, but she was quick to chase away the feeling. She gently lifted Luna off her back and set her down by the door. “Alright, stay here,” she instructed. She pulled a blanket out of her saddlebags and draped it around Luna. “I’m gonna have a look around.” Luna held the blanket tight against her body before looking up past Celestia at the signs of the fight. Her brow furrowed. “...You fought them here, didn’t you?” she deduced. Celestia didn’t say anything. She simply turned and got to work. Her first stop was the pantry. She spent several minutes heading back and forth, hauling the containers of food from their place in storage and setting them down by the door. However much food they could store in their collective saddlebags would have to be enough. Once she was done, she made her way to the stairs. She lingered at their base for a moment, staring up into the darkness. She had never gone up there, before. She had no idea what she would find, and for a moment, something glued her hooves to the floor.  Luna was right. It didn’t feel right to be doing this. But what other choice did they have? Celestia took a deep breath, uttered a silent apology, and began her ascent. The second story did not have as much in it as she would have liked. There was a bathroom of some sort and a collection of simple bedrooms. One had a large double bed, messy and unmade. The other was home to two beds pressed up against the wall. The first bedroom, the one she could only assume was Mudflat’s, was regrettably short on anything of value. All she could find were some scraps of parchment laying on a desk. They were marked down with detailed illustrations of some flowers, with lines drawn in ink leading to writing she could not read. It was probably useless, but she stuffed it into her saddlebags all the same.  From the second bedroom, she carefully folded up the blankets on the beds, miraculously untouched, and stuffed them into her saddlebags, too. She also took the pillows, though she wasn’t sure she’d get much mileage out of them. She lingered briefly by the beds once she was done, noting the markings chiseled into the headboards. “He said he had grandkids,” she thought after a moment. “So he had children, too. This must have been where they slept.” Her thoughts returned to the room she shared with Luna back in their mountain home, and a spear of painful nostalgia stabbed her heart. This time, though, she didn’t even flinch, and the moment passed as quickly as it had come. She picked up a few other odds and ends from the second floor she thought might be useful, but there was precious little to be had. Figuring that she had picked up everything she could, she made her way back downstairs to Luna. The smaller foal was right where Celestia had left her, with the notable difference that she had procured a single carrot and was slowly nibbling on it. Luna perked up at Celestia’s approach. “Did you find anything?” she asked hopefully, her eyes lingering on her elder sister’s saddlebags. Celestia shrugged. “Not much. I got us some new blankets, a couple of pillows, and some parchment. I can’t read it, so maybe we can use it in a fire,” she recounted before sitting down next to her sister, back to the wall. “Anything else was a little too big to take with us.” Luna nodded. “Blankets are good. It’ll be easier to keep warm.” Celestia nodded. “Yeah.” The two sat in silence for a short while, and Celestia took the chance to breathe. After a little while, her thoughts started to drift back to Starshine. Her brow furrowed. She still wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the mare. The promise of aid was a welcome one, absolutely, but still. It felt like it had come just a little too quickly. She glanced over at Luna. “Hey. What do you think of Starshine?” she finally asked. Luna looked up, still nibbling away at her carrot. She swallowed it down and tilted her head. “Um… she seems nice. I dunno,” she finally mumbled. “But she’s helping us, so…  isn’t that what counts?” Celestia was quiet for a moment. She looked directly ahead. “...Yeah, I guess,” she conceded with a shrug. The two lapsed once more into silence. Seconds began to tick by into minutes, the only sound being the gentle crunching of Luna’s snack and the ever-constant whistling of the winter winds outside. They were slowly getting louder, the snowfall from the mountains drawing ever nearer.  Celestia grimaced. If they didn’t leave soon, they might have to hunker down and spend the night in the town just to avoid the worst of the storm. And with Luna’s health on the line, any delays were something she wanted to avoid. Thankfully, such concerns were unfounded. After only a few more minutes, the sound of hooves crunching through the snow outside drew the sisters’ attention. Celestia turned to look through the door and saw Starshine trotting up with her son at her side. Their saddlebags were stuffed to bursting, though with what, Celestia wasn’t entirely sure. “Kids? Are you here?” Starshine called out. “Yeah! In here-!” Luna called back, moving to stand. She winced and fell back against the wall, a hoof held to her broken rib. Celestia put a hoof on her shoulder to steady her. “Try not to move,” she said softly, giving Luna’s mane a few tender strokes. Once her sister regained her composure, Celestia gingerly hefted her onto her back and stepped outside. The cold air stung her face, prompting her to pull her own blanket tighter around herself. She paused in her descent, her eyes wandering back to Mudflat’s grave. She just stared at it for a moment, working her jaw from side to side. She felt the need to say something to it as if the old codger would be able to hear her. It was stupid, a waste of time. And yet… “...Hey,” she said softly to the grave. She hesitated, acutely aware of Luna on her back, and of the adult and her son waiting on her. She licked her lips, trying to think of something to say. “Um… S-sorry for taking some of your things. But Luna and I… w-we need this stuff more than you. We’ll take good care of it all, I promise. And, uh… you probably won’t be seeing us again.” The silence was her answer, and the feeling that she was wasting time gnawed at her. She shook her head with a quiet huff. “...Sorry. I’ll stop bothering you. Bye,” she said before turning and making her way back toward Shine and Glow. On her back, she could feel Luna’s hooves curling into her mane just a little tighter, and the smaller foal shuddered. It didn’t take long to get their affairs in order. Between the four of them and the packs they carried, they were able to haul along enough food to last them for about a week, maybe more than that if they rationed and were willing to skip a meal every now and then. Mostly carrots, potatoes, and some sort of crop that Shine had brought with her. Cabbages, she called them. Nothing that Celestia was familiar with. Finally, after one last check of their supplies, there was nothing else for it. With Starshine leading the way, Glow keeping close to her right side and Celestia and Luna on the left, the trio set out from Flatstone. Celestia cast frequent glances over her shoulder at the village as they left, watching it slowly but surely disappear into the distance, along with the mountain. Details became hazy and indistinct, subsumed by the all-consuming snow. Finally, the approaching wall of gray coiled around the mountainside like ravenous tentacles. Inch by inch, the ancient slopes that had once been Celestia’s home were greedily swallowed up until nothing remained. At that moment, Celestia realized that she would probably never lay eyes on her home again. A bitter feeling welled up in her throat, tingling at the clavicle.  She ignored it. “Let’s try to keep to high ground,” Starshine said, drawing Celestia’s attention back to her. “We don’t want to fall into any deep snow, and we’ll have better visibility.” “Alright,” Celestia replied. Her legs were already burning from the effort of pushing through the snow, and she found herself falling back to try and use the trench left by Starshine to take some of the pressure off. Starshine glanced back at her. Her eyes flicked to Celestia’s back, where Luna still lay resting. Her brow furrowed in concern. “Do you need me to carry her for you?” she asked. “Take some of the-” “No,” Celestia cut her off, a little more sharply than intended. She took a moment to compose herself before speaking again. “No, thank you. I may be a kid, but I’m strong. I can manage.” Starshine hummed softly. She didn’t seem convinced, but she did not press the issue, either. She instead turned her eyes forward, focusing on the route they were to take. Celestia followed her gaze, staring ahead at the rolling, endless hills. “So how long is this trip going to take?” Celestia asked, glaring ahead at the land ahead of them. Starshine hummed quietly, her ears swiveling on her head. “It’s hard to say. In ideal circumstances, I would wager only a week or two. But with things being the way they are now…” Celestia grunted in acknowledgment, focusing on maintaining a steady pace and keeping Luna secure on her back. The group didn’t speak again for what felt like forever. Every so often, they crossed by a now-dead tree, or an old shrub or bush, reduced to jagged twigs or forlorn lumps. True to Starshine’s stated goal, the group moved to follow natural ridgelines and keep the tops of the hills wherever possible. It meant ascending one first, an arduous climb that left everypony winded, but they pressed on all the same. Once they reached the summit of the hill, things became thankfully, far easier, and from this high altitude, Celestia was once again afforded a seemingly endless view of the expanse of dead white that stretched to the horizon. It somehow looked even more dead than before, and she found herself skeptical that anything could live through this. Celestia wasn’t sure how long they were going. It had to have been hours, at least. It felt like forever. But with the constant grey of the sunlight overhead refusing to change or move, it seemed as if the ice and snow had frozen the very concept of time in its tracks. Every so often, Shine and Glow would look up at the sky, their expressions twisted with concern and fear. Celestia could only imagine what they were thinking. Unfortunately, they could not enjoy the compass of the sun forever. As time ticked by, the snow gradually began to catch up with them. It started off subtle, almost unnoticeable. An occasional gust of wind blasted against their flanks and rears that would soon die down. A flurry of larger snowflakes here and there, dusting the path ahead of them and the slopes beside them before vanishing into the dunes. But as time progressed, the signs became more frequent and more disruptive. The snapping gusts came more frequently, and each one lasted longer. The falling snow grew thicker and thicker, and even the greylight above faded into a single, dark hue. Slowly but surely, what might have been considered a pleasant dusting of snow had evolved into a soul-sucking blizzard. It was getting hard to walk, and the cold was becoming unbearable. Even with the blankets wrapped around her body, Celestia was shivering, and she couldn’t feel the tips of her exposed hooves. She did her best to ignore the discomfort, to just focus on walking. One step at a time, bit by bit. They’d make it. They had to make it. She’d promised they would make it. What she could not ignore, however, was the way Luna was starting to shiver on her back. She looked back at her, her face contorting with concern. She recalled how Sprout and Honey had been shaking when she pulled them out of the river, and the death that had followed swiftly after them. As if reading Celestia’s thoughts, Starshine suddenly drew to a halt and turned back to face her. “We need to find shelter,” she said. “This wind is becoming too strong. If we keep going in this, we’re going to freeze.” Celestia nodded, biting back her frustration with the delay. “Right. Any ideas?” Starshine cast her eyes about, her frown deepening as she squinted into the growing blizzard. A few moments later, however, she perked up and pointed. “Over there! That cluster of trees.” Celestia followed her hoof. Sure enough, there was a cluster of tall, now dead trees rising from the snow a ways away. They were hard to make out amid the haze, but Celestia could tell that they were packed tightly together, which meant they would keep the worst of the wind off of them. Celestia relaxed slightly. “Alright. I’ll go ahead and clear the snow!” she declared before flaring her wings and taking to the air. “Huh- Celestia! Wait!” Starshine shouted after her, but Celestia ignored her. She arced high into the air over the cluster, the snowflakes raking at her face as they passed like the claws of a furious cat. Once she was sure there was a clear space in the middle, Celestia tucked her wings to her sides to keep the winds from knocking her off course and entered into a controlled fall. The branches of the trees rose up fast, like spikes at the bottom of a pit trap, ready to skewer her.  At the last moment, just as she was about to reach the prickly canopy, she flared her wings and unleashed a pulse of magic from her horn. The air itself seemed to bend and bow away from the concussive burst, and the trees were no different. They folded down and away from her, leaving her plenty of space to fall harmlessly through. A few quick flaps of her wings eroded what was left of their momentum before her hooves came to a gentle landing in the center of the cluster. On her back, she felt Luna shifting. “Mmph… show off.” Celestia hesitated for a moment, then chuckled. “Heh… Maybe a little,” she confessed quietly. She hadn’t really been thinking of it in that light, but she had gone a little overboard, hadn’t she? Like she would have done way back when to show off for her parents… She shook the memory away and turned her attention to clear away as much snow as she could. With a grunt, she encased a large clump with her magic. She went to lift it, and her grunt became a groan of exertion. It was like her magic was slipping off the snow’s surface, like water off a duck’s back. It took far more effort than was at all reasonable to get a firm grip, and even when she did, hurling it through the trees proved a challenge in its own right. The snow was dense and deep and weighed like lead in her magic. Still, with a burst of energy and a small shout, Celestia managed to send the clump flying out of the clearing. Starshine and Starglow caught up to her a few moments later, picking their way through the thicket. Starshine’s face was contorted into a disapproving frown as she emerged into the clearing. “That was reckless, Celestia. The wind might have thrown you off course!” Celestia shrugged. “I had it under control,” she argued back, starting to try and dig up another clump of snow. She grit her teeth behind sealed lips, grunting once again with the strain. Starshine’s frown deepened. Celestia felt the mare’s hoof on her back, drawing her attention. Starshine shook her head. “Maybe this time. But please don’t do that again. We need to stick together,” she instructed before using her magic to aid in Celestia’s efforts. “And I can’t carry both you and your sister if you get yourself hurt.” Celestia did not answer. It took a while and a lot of effort, but eventually, enough space had been cleared out to allow Starshine to erect a tent using some supplies she already had, and reinforced it with the spare blankets that Celestia had found in Mudflat’s place. A humble was soon to follow, casting dancing orange light over the clearing that fought back the tyranny of winter. It spat and crackled in defiance of the wind, determined to provide its creators with warmth enough to survive the storm. And so the group lay down in the tent’s entrance, bundled up with blankets and enjoying a sparse ‘dinner’ of carrots, potatoes, and a few leaves of ‘cabbage’ that had been warmed by the fire. The exception was Luna, who by Celestia’s insistence had eaten first and was now tucked safely in the back of the tent to rest. She hadn’t argued and had fallen asleep almost as soon as she had been set down. Starglow looked up at the sky as they ate. “It’s still light out…” he murmured absently. “When’s the sun gonna go down?” Starshine looked up as well, her ears drooping. “...I wish I knew,” she muttered. “It’s probably going to be a while yet before darkness falls. And when it does… well, who knows how long until we’ll have light, again.” Celestia followed their eyes up to the sky. Were it not for the storm clouds that now smothered it, the odds were high that the light wouldn’t have changed at all. And even with the hours that had passed, it was clear that the sun was still far, far from setting. There was a tingle in her horn as she thought of the sun, but she paid it no mind. Starglow looked back over his shoulder at the tent, his ears drooping. “...Are we gonna sleep in this thing?” he asked anxiously. Starshine nodded. “We are.” Glow pouted, looking down at his hooves. “...I don’t like it,” he complained before taking a bite out of his final carrot. “I wanna go home.” Celestia actually managed to let off a snort of a laugh at that. “Ha. Join the club,” she grumbled. “I want to go home, too, but I can’t. The whole house is probably buried at this point…” Silence fell over the group. Starshine turned her eyes back to Celestia. “You mentioned before that your parents lived in the mountains. May I ask why?” Celestia was quiet for a moment. She finished off her carrot and got comfortable on her belly. Or as comfortable as she could. The fire was nice, but the cold wind was fiercer. After a moment, she shrugged, her voice coming out in a longing whisper. “They told me they moved out there to get away from all the bickering between the tribes. The pegasi were being pushier than usual about the food Flatstone owed them or something, so the ponies in Flatstone figured violence was the answer. Mom and dad thought the others were being stupid, so they moved into the mountains to get away from it all.” Starglow tilted his head. “Why the mountains?” Celestia shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe because it was nice up there. Lots of big evergreen trees, pretty rivers, and beautiful valleys, and it never got too hot in summer. And, you know, it’s a mountain. Not a lot of ponies are gonna climb that to bother them.” Starglow was quiet for a few seconds, nodding to himself. A moment later, Celestia turned to Starshine, her brow furrowed as a thought occurred to her. “You know, I don’t think you told me what you were doing out here. I mean, you’re a unicorn, but we’re right in the middle of Earth Pony territory, aren’t we?” she asked. Starshine smiled at her. “The farthest frontiers of it, actually. We still have a lot of Earth Pony territory to cover before we’re back in my homeland.” “That still doesn’t tell me why you’re all the way out here,” Celestia pressed. Starshine looked away, her brow furrowing with visible discomfort. “I…” Starglow piped up a second later. “C’mon. She told us her deal. It’s our turn.” Starshine was quiet for a moment, then gave a sigh and a nod of her head. “You know what? That’s fair,” she relented. Her eyes lingered on the fire. She licked her lips, her jaw tightening as she considered her words. “...To give you the short version, I had to leave and get as far away as I could from the ponies I was with when I became pregnant with Glow. For his safety, if nothing else.”   Celestia tilted her head. “Was he in danger?” she questioned. Starshine bit her lip, looking down. “...There was a chance he would have been. A chance I was unwilling to take. So between that, and the fact that the pony I was living with was the most inconsiderate, controlling, jaded old goblin I have ever had the displeasure of sharing a roof with, I found I had little desire to stay, and far more plentiful reasons to leave.” “So you ran all the way out here?” Celestia asked, blinking in surprise. “That’s a long way to go. And into another tribe’s territory, too.” Starshine smiled softly and gave a little nod of her head. “Indeed it is. I suppose in some ways I wasn’t unlike your parents in that, once I was moving, I decided I was done with all of the politics of my people. You wouldn’t believe how convoluted it can get among the unicorn aristocracy. It’s all a headache, and I have no stomach for it. My passion was magic, not etiquette. So I decided to get as far from it as I could. I managed to stumble on a few earth pony travelers who were willing to give me some tips on surviving off the land, and they pointed me toward an old cottage not far from Flatstone that had been abandoned for years. I made it my home, and there I perfected my craft, and even picked up a thing or two about rudimentary alchemy.” Starglow suddenly snickered to himself. “Hehehehe… The ponies in that town never liked her. They always called her The Witch of the Wilds!” Starshine shot him a look. “No, that’s what you decided to call me after you learned what the word ‘witch’ means.” Starglow grinned. “So? They totally woulda called you that too!” Starshine rolled her eyes and turned back to Celestia with a small titter of amusement. “Does that answer your question, Celestia?” Celestia nodded, going over it all in her head. “I think so…” she muttered. A bitter gust blew past them, sending the firelight spluttering and flickering. The branches overhead creaked and groaned, and Celestia could hear Glow letting off a yelp of alarm as he cuddled up closer to his mother for protection from the wind. He leaned forward to look at her. “Bbrrr-rrr! C-celestia?! You have pegasus wings! Can’t you d-do something about this?!” Celestia shook her head. “Trust me, I’ve tried. It won’t work.” Starshine blinked in surprise. “Wait, what? You can't control the weather?” she asked. Celestia’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, we can. Just not this,” she spat, thrusting a hoof up at the clouds. The wind whistling through the trees almost sounded like it was mocking her, taunting her for being unable to save her old home, or her family. Starshine looked up at the sky herself, her eyes narrowing. “So, the Pegasi are resisted as well? Troubling…” Starglow looked at her, his anxiety visibly growing. “Huh?” “Pegasi are naturally meant to be able to control the weather,” Starshine explained. “It’s their given gift. We Unicorns have the given gift of magic and knowledge, while Earth Ponies have the given gift of strength and endurance, enough to tend the land in ways we never could. But this storm… it seems to counter all of those things.” Celestia tilted her head. She hadn’t heard the term ‘given gift’ before. She could only assume it was a Unicorn thing. But she did remember with vivid, frightening clarity the way the snowstorm had pushed back against her magic when she and her family were descending the slopes. She had barely been able to keep the flakes out of their eyes. And it happened again when trying to make this campsite… Starshine went on. “Our magic struggles to grasp it or protect us from it. A pegasus struggles to even stand against the wind, much less change it. And…” her eyes drifted tentatively to Celestia. “...A-and I can only assume that this winter has killed Earth Ponies.” Celestia looked down. “...Yeah. Like they were nothing.” The way Starshine tensed was telling. She looked back into the fire, her eyes wide with growing dread. “If that is the case… the pegasi are not responsible. I had thought they might have been - they were the only suspects that made sense. The weather is their domain. But they would never create something that escapes their control. They are brutes but they are not fools. Whatever is causing this winter…” The wind howled again as if egging her on to speak the words. She swallowed heavily. “...It isn’t the work of ponies.” “But what could be the cause?” Celestia asked, looking back down into the fire. Celestia's mind turned to the ghosts, and she found herself starting to question whether or not they were a symptom or a cause… “...Dad.” Celestia blinked. The voice had come from behind her. She looked back over her shoulder at her little sister to see Luna shifting around uncomfortably in her blankets. Her face was contorting with discomfort, and every so often, she let off a tiny whimper. Celestia’s ears drooped. Bad dreams, again. Starshine’s lips slowly quirked up into a smile. “Ha. Poor thing… I think she has the right idea, though,” she said, slowly standing up. She gave a languid stretch, and a series of satisfying pops came from her back. “Come. There is nothing left for us to do but wait for the winds to die down. Let’s get some sleep.” Starglow pouted at her. “But I’m not tired!” he lied before letting off an impressively massive yawn. Starshine chuckled and hefted him up in her magic. “You, young stallion, are a terrible liar,” she said before escorting her squirming and fidgeting son back inside.  Celestia looked back into the fire one more time, taking a chance to savor its warmth reaching her face. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, imagining for a moment that it was the warmth of the sun breaking through this awful blizzard. Again, there was that tingle on her horn… “Celestia? Are you coming?” Starshine asked from behind her a moment later. Celestia opened her eyes. “Yeah. I’m coming.”