“Everypony hang on back there!” The Mare Stream bucked and shook, tossing its occupants around the interior with a few screams of surprise and loud thuds as bodies hit walls and floors.
“You could give us a little more warning next time, Zipp!” Pipp yelled up to the cabin as she pulled herself to her hooves and fixed the now askew tiara on her head. “Is everypony okay?” She asked the others as they pried themselves from their compromised positions.
“Ugh…yeah.” Sunny was the first to answer as she disentangled herself from Izzy and went to one of the nearby windows, only to be met with blinding white snow outside and even a few flashes of lightning from beyond. “I…should probably go help Zipp.” No small amount of fear and worry crept into those words.
“Good idea.” Hitch groaned and held his head with a hoof after it collided with one of the walls. “I’m glad we didn’t bring Sparky along…”
“Yeah,and it gives him and Misty a chance to become even better friends!” Izzy added with a beaming smile.
Sunny staggered away to the cockpit and walked into the cramped captain’s spot where Zipp sat, visibly wrestling with the controls. A gust of wind would hit the Mare Stream and Zipp would slam the controls to compensate before the unwieldy thing could roll over, or worse. Her wings were flared out and flapping a little each time she used all of her strength to fight for control. The bright prisbeam light from the lantern bathed the princess’ sweat drenched face with a colorful and all-too-cheerful light.
“What can I do to help?” Sunny’s voice came out shaky as her eyes focused on the blizzard raging outside. She had to do her best to collect herself. She took a deep breath and focused on stopping herself from hyperventilating. She couldn’t help if she was panicking.
“Can you control the weather?” Zipp asked through gritted teeth. She brought a purple and blue tipped wing to her head to get her mane away from her eyes. “Because that’s about the only waAAAAY-” the sentence couldn’t be finished as another rogue air current slammed into the bulky vehicle. This time, not even Zipp’s best effort could stop what was about to happen.
The Mare Stream tipped just enough so that the underside of the wing was exposed to the crosswind that had been battering it for the last little while. When the next gust caught it, the thing flipped. The ponies inside screamed as they were tossed around and the magical flying brick tumbled violently through the blizzard that consumed them. They were now at the mercy of the storm that surrounded them, and it had very little to give.
Zipp was still holding onto the controls as the plane/van hybrid fell, the screen in the middle of the dashboard letting her know that they were dropping like a rock. Not that there was anything she could do with that information. Nevertheless, it was there and sending her already thudding heart into overtime. The only thing she could realistically do was hope that the inevitable landing would only be awful and not catastrophic.
A soft golden light filtered into the periphery of her vision that quickly became harsh. Zipp craned her head around to see Sunny floating in the middle of the chaos, the Mare Stream rolling and jostling around in every direction as she hovered in place.She was a fixed point, somehow in the dead center of the cockpit with everything rotating around her without ever coming close to touching her.
An ethereal horn and wings sprung from the earth pony’s body and her eyes glowed with the same light. A wave of magic erupted from the mare, stopping the Mare Stream all at once. It slowly rotated until it was the right way up, and then it started to descend smoothly through the storm around it. Not even the strongest wind or the fiercest lightning could disturb the trajectory as it floated from the heavens and back down to earth with the aid of its very own angel.
The landing wasn’t as gentle as the descent. Once they were, according to the readout on the screen, a few dozen feet above the ground Sunny’s serene grip faltered. The Mare Stream hit the ground with a mighty thud, plumes of pure driven snow erupting around the windows.
Once it had hit the ground, so did Sunny. The mare collapsed into a head on the cold gray floor below, the only sign of life being shallow breaths. Zipp stood, her legs nearly buckling under her, and walked over to her friend. She put a hoof on Sunny’s barrel and felt the slow steady heartbeat and shallow breaths. With a nod, she moved to head into the back.
The others were in a lot worse shape than Sunny. The first thing Zipp noticed was her sister passed out with a nasty welt quickly growing on her forehead. She raced to Pipp’s side and hurriedly picked her up and tried to rouse her to no success.
“Nononono…” Zipp muttered under her breath, pupils dilated and breath quickening. Her hooves moved around her sister’s chest, only feeling the slightest movement. She placed her ear against the smaller pegasus’ chest and held her own breath as she listened closely.
*th-thump*
*th-thump*
It was faint, but it was there.
“Is she okay?” A small voice came from nearby. Usually it would be full of life and excitement, but now it sounded so full of dread and pain that Zipp could hardly believe it was Izzy.
“I-I think so.” Zipp sniffled and wiped the tears that had formed at the corners of her eyes. “She’s breathing and there’s a heartbeat. I think she just got knocked out.” She saw the sheriff lumber into her vision from one of the corners rubbing his head and grumbling. “Are you two okay?”
“I think I twisted one of my ankles.” Izzy was the first to respond, her front right hoof inches off of the ground. She tried to put it down and put weight on it, but recoiled with a hiss as pain shot up the leg. “Yeah…not good.”
“I’m alright.” Hitch answered next. “A few bumps and bruises, but I’m good.” He shot an obviously forced half-smile at her, which Zipp returned with a nod. “How about you?”
“Fine. I was holding onto the stick the entire time.” Zipp sat Pipp back down gently, making sure to rest the pudgy pink princess on her side. “Sunny…Sunny saved us. She went all alicorn and stopped us from crashing. She’s passed out up front, just exhausted I think.”
“So what’s the plan?” Hitch wasted no time and just took Zipp’s assessment at face value. He straightened the leather sash that held his badge and smoothed out the turquoise mane on his head with a hoof. “We can’t stay here.”
“No, of course not.” Zipp nodded in agreement. “We need to check to see if this thing is damaged. Make any repairs we can and then leave as soon as the storm clears.” As she was speaking, she couldn’t help but see her own breath pouring from her muzzle as she spoke. “We might have our work cut out for us.”
“Izzy, do we have blankets in here?” Hitch turned to the unicorn, who had somehow already fashioned a makeshift splint for her bad hoof with bundles of tongue depressors and bright pink twine. The sudden appearance of the craft solution didn’t seem to even phase Hitch, only drawing a momentary glance from the sheriff as he spoke.
“Of course we do! Tons!” Izzy tapped the wall that separated the back from the cockpit and a panel opened, revealing at least a dozen blankets of varying colors and thickness. “And we have winter clothes packed for everypony! When Sunny said where we were going, I made sure we were prepared!”
“Thank hoofness for that.” Zipp said with a sigh. “Sherriff, bundle up. I want you to come out there with me to look this thing over.” She received a curt nod and a determined look from Hitch. “Izzy, do you think you can get Sunny and Pipp settled back here? Put some blankets down so they’re not laying on the ground and make sure they’re okay if you can.”
“I can do that, definitely!” Izzy limped away towards the cockpit after giving a salute with her bad hoof.
Zipp and Hitch found the wardrobe that Izzy had packed and bundled up the best they could: hats, scarves, jackets and boots for both.It was probably less than they needed, but it would have to do for a small stint outside.They gathered at the door to the outside while Izzy was busy arranging blankets on the ground behind them. They exchanged a not and Hitch pulled the door opened, bringing a surge of whipping arctic air into the inside.
The duo pushed outside and quickly shut the door behind them. The surrounding environment was, in a word, desolate. White dunes of snow as far as the eye could see, which wasn’t but a few feet at the most given the current conditions. Zipp looked around once, and upon seeing nothing but the blizzard, went to trudge around the Mare Stream.
The snow almost came up to their stomachs, making any sort of movement a slog. Zipp would’ve flown to avoid the inconvenience, but with the way the wind was blowing that could only end bad for her. So they went around the exterior of the van as quickly as the situation permitted, which was painfully slow.
Above the snow, there was no visible damage to the Mare Stream. At least nothing catastrophic, there was a small crack towards the top but that could be patched up from inside.They had to briefly dig in the still accumulating snow to get to a tire and found it completely bent, which spelt troubles ahead when they got back home.
“We have to try to start it!” Zipp yelled above the howling wind that overwhelmed the senses. “Everything else seems fine, I think! It’s really hard to tell, the only way to tell is to see if it’ll start up!”
“Yeah, I’ll go in and-” Hitch’s words fell away as his eyes fixated on something behind Zipp. “-hey what’s that!?” Zipp spun around to follow the sheriff’s eyes and saw something through the heavy veil of snow.
It was a light. High in the sky, even through the blitzing blizzard, it was visible. It was maybe a few thousand feet away from them, and then the same distance or more above them. Zipp wanted to brush it off as the lightning they had seen during their rapid descent, but it wasn’t right. It was pulsating, slowly, but rapidly gaining pace. The flickering became blinking, which became a strobe of light that not only became quicker, but brighter as well. It cut through the thick sheets of snow and caused the two ponies to shield their eyes from the intensity.
The small distant light exploded with unexpected force, pushing both Zipp and Hitch firmly against the cold metal exterior of the Mare Stream. When next they were able to open their eyes, they found the landscape surrounding them changed entirely. Snow no longer covered the ground, the sky was no longer dark and impenetrable. Instead, they were in a verdant green field with a bright blue sky above them. The bone chilling cold that had been biting them even through their clothes had left, only to be replaced with the air of a nice spring day.
The sudden change in the weather wasn’t even the weirdest part, no that was the objects that had sprouted up in the distance. They were large thick pillars of purple and blue crystals, some with what looked like windows in them. Then, even past that initial line of crystal was a massive shining spire of bright blue crystal with a light gleaming from its tip.
“What in the world…” Hitch was the first to speak, and he voiced Zipp’s thoughts exactly. “What is this place…?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Sunny knows? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an oasis in the Arctic.” Zipp dug her hoof into the soil below as she spoke, just to make sure it was real. Her white fur became stained with dirt as she brought it up to confirm that it was indeed real and not some kind of sick illusion. “We should go into that…town and see if there’s anypony that can help us with the injuries.”
“Maybe you should go ahead, you’re a lot faster without me tagging along.” Hitch removed his scarf and hat with a nod. “I’ll try to get this thing started up and follow when I can.”
Zipp was already removing her winter gear and dumping it on the ground. Her wings unfurled and tipped back and forth to see if they could catch a breeze, only to find the air was unnaturally still. She gave a running start, her hooves beating against the soft grass and dirt below, and jumped into the calm air of this new place.
As Zipp flew through the sky, she kept her eyes focused on the ground below. She was expecting to see signs of life, not sure if they would be ponies, but she was expecting **something** beyond the desolate fields and streets she saw below. With all of the crystals, maybe this was where the dragons had gone? It would make sense for their magic to keep the cold at bay and Sunny had mentioned something about them and crystals in the past. This had to be the lead they were searching for!
There was no sign of life in what Zipp now recognized as a city. There were streets with carts turned over on their sides, stalls with fresh produce left abandoned with nary a pony or other creature around. Not even the wind swept through the deserted streets. It was as if death had swept through the streets and buildings.
The silence was finally shattered by a window breaking in the distance, more specifically from the giant spire that sat in the middle of the city. What looked to be a spear was falling along the side from high up with smoke trailing in its wake. It tumbled and struck the side of what could only be described as a palace, lodging its blade firmly in the crystal.
A howl followed, an unearthly animalistic sound that caused Zipp to freeze and sent shivers throughout her entire body. Something deep down compelled her to run, to fly back to her friends and get as far away as fast as possible. She fought that urge down and swallowed her instincts and sped over to the shattered window.
Inside was, as she suspected, a palace. The decorative sconces that lined the hall and the obscenely high quality rug that ran the length of the hallway were things she had grown up around. It was a universal language of a place of importance. The familiar isn’t what stood out, no, it was the unfamiliar. A great cloud of smoke sped down the corridor, a purple and green aura erupting from the front of it and firing vicious blasts of energy at something.
“This might be out of my league…” Zipp mumbled under her breath. “...but whatever that thing is after is in trouble.” The window wasn’t wide enough for her to squeeze through, and even if it was she wouldn’t risk that with the shattered glass around the edges.
She had to find a way in.
So around the spire she went in an upwards spiral from the window. There had to be a balcony or rooftop access point somewhere, but she found nothing and began to work her way back down. That’s when the sound of another window breaking caught her attention. This time instead of a weapon flying into the calm skies, it was a pony.