//------------------------------//
// Chapter Seven: Buried Memories 
// Story: The River Rising (Iota Force Issue #7) 
// by The Iguana Man 
//------------------------------//

“Everypony okay?” Sunny's voice asked in the now-complete darkness of the cave.

Icy blinked heavily as she readjusted to the lack of motion, her eyes seeing little difference between being closed and open. “Yeah, I think so.”

A moment later, she heard an “Uh huh,” from Archer and an affirmative grunt from Lance and breathed a sigh of relief. Of course, a moment later, when she breathed in again, she had to ram her mouth closed to keep her coughing quiet as part of the massive cloud of dust kicked up by the rockslide slipped into her lungs, but she still considered herself relatively okay.

“Right,” Sunny said after a second. “Well, give me a moment and I'll get a light up.”

“No need, save the magic,” Archer replied before there was a sudden sound of a bowstring. A split second later, there was a thunk further to the left before the cave lit up suddenly, an arrow lodged into the wall glowing with a powerful white light. Icy instinctively raised a hoof to shield her eyes, familiar enough with Archer's magic arrows to assume it was designed to blind or disorient enemies, only to find that even looking directly at it wasn't painful – the light was extremely gentle, despite lighting up the cave very effectively. Something to do with the magic, Icy supposed.

Still, she felt the need to ask, “So, how useful is an arrow that just lights up a place?”

Archer raised an eyebrow with a smile. “Pretty darn if you're one of us poor saps who needs to see something to shoot it.” She paused as she thought for a moment. “Sometimes, anyway. So let's see the damage.”

Icy turned to follow Archer's sightline, with Lance and Sunny also looking out towards the cave's exit. Or, at least, what had been the exit a moment ago.

Now, however, the entire mouth of the cave seemed to be buried in rock and gravel, the mass of stones forming a steep slope from the top of the mouth to around three metres in, with the right tip of the hang glider's wing poking at a larger bit of rock that was otherwise completely buried.

Icy sighed, careful to close her mouth afterwards lest she inhale another lungful of powdered stone. “So, how long do you think it'll take us to dig our way out?”

In her peripheral vision, she saw her mother open her mouth to answer as she began disconnecting the glider's crossbar but, as Icy turned to her, Archer cut her off. “Well, the digging ain't the problem. I saw about four or five massive boulders fall before most of the slide and... well, didn't have time to get a good look at 'em, but they looked pretty carefully stacked. And if that's any indication,” she pointed up at where the hang glider was touching the buried stone, “we might have some trouble pulling 'em outta the way. And if we can't get past 'em, well...” She trailed off with a shrug of powerlessness.

A moment later, however, Lance gave a very different shrug – one of being unconcerned. He walked forward and began digging down through the gravel, giving them an expression of having nothing better to do. After all, he indicated with a wave towards the inner depths of the mound, whatever they could or couldn't do with the big rocks, they'd need to get to them in the first place to either do anything or know that they couldn't.

Archer nodded. “Fair point. Still,” She turned away from the cave mouth, peering into the darkness of the descending passage, “might be an idea if I explore deeper in the cave. See if there's another way out. Doubt it, but you never know.”

Icy nodded, while Sunny hummed a little, clearly unsure. “You sure it's safe? If you run into any trouble...”

“Yeah, don't worry about it,” Archer replied, drawing another light arrow from her quiver and hitting it hard against the wall, activating it so she could hold it in front of herself like a lantern. “If there is something I can't handle,” she continued, her tone making clear exactly how unlikely she thought that possibility was, “I'll come back and we can get taken out together, being boxed in and all.”

As Archer walked off into the depths, Sunny sighed with a slight smile and shake of the head. “That is one confident filly.” She said as she laid the crossbar to the side, giving everypony more room to move.

Icy nodded, acutely aware of how that confidence and reflexive cockiness had gotten the group rumbled by their target in the first place. “Yeah, she is that.”

With a shrug, she turned back to the pile of stone, trotting up to start helping Lance with digging it away. As she did, she noticed Sunny joining her, prompting her to turn to her mother with a raised wing. “It's okay, Mom, you don't have to help for a little while. I know you used up a heck of a lot of magic just now, so you should probably rest your horn for a bit.”

Sunny chuckled. “Hey, who said anything about my horn, sweetie?” As she reached the mound, she began scraping away the stone with her forehooves, her larger body making the process a lot more efficient than Lance's efforts, even if it would still take her quite a while. “I may not have as much Earth Pony blood as some, but I've got no problem working with my hooves.”

Icy hummed uncertainly but did turn away to begin aiding the excavation herself, in her own small way. “Alright, as long as it won't tire you out more,” she said, unsure of exactly where a unicorn's magic being drained ended and where their body being tired began.

Sunny laughed as she continued to scoop away hooffuls of rock. “Is it weird to sarcastically say “yes, mom!” to your daughter? It feels like that'd be weird.”

Icy giggled. “Little bit, yeah, but I get the point. Sorry.”

Sunny waved off the apology. “It's fine. For a lot of unicorns, even if being magically spent doesn't make them physically tired, it helps to take it easy while they recharge. Me, though?” She sent another clump of rocks flying a little harder than normal to emphasize the point. “Guess I'm just conditioned to keep working when my horn's dry.”

“Conditioned?” Icy asked, not quite understanding how the term applied in that context.

Sunny nodded. “Yeah. Generally, if I've used up most of my magic, that means I've had to use it all up, which means I've just been in a situation where I really couldn't afford to stop and rest. And once my horn's dry, then either I'm still in a sticky situation, which means I need to do what I can with my hooves to stay safe, or I'm not in immediate danger, but I've only just stopped being, meaning I need to do something to make sure the danger doesn't come back or some new danger doesn't come in and blindside me. So, when I'm out of magic, I've just gotten used to working. Think I'd feel weird just sitting around to recharge. 'Specially when there's an obstacle right in front of me that needs dealing with.

Icy bobbed her head to the side as she considered this before nodding, letting the conversation fall away as all three focused on their digging efforts.

A short while later, they heard hoofsteps trotting up behind them, Archer's voice speaking up a moment later.

“Well, good news, we're not gonna be running out of air anytime soon – there's a decent-sized cavern down there. Bad news, couldn't see any other way out of it. Might have been one underwater, but I couldn't see it if there was. Plus, no way to know if one like that'd come out of the water quick enough for us to swim it anyway.”

Icy gulped hard at the image, casting an unnerved glance down the cave towards the cavern Archer had mentioned, silently praying that she wouldn't have to go near it.

To her side, her mother hummed as she continued to shovel away rocks. “Well, if this exit's a total no-go, I might have a look myself, but we'll keep it in reserve.”

“Yeah, that's what I was thinking,” Archer replied as she joined the others in digging away at the sloping wall of stones, humming to herself as she did.

Icy wasn't sure if it was the addition of music, such as it was, that made the task seem to go faster, whether the fourth set of hooves had sped them up massively or if they had simply been close to it when Archer joined, but they soon had one of the large boulders uncovered on the upper left of the stack. Unfortunately, what they saw wasn't encouraging.

“Wow, she really jammed these things in here, didn't she?” Icy said as she looked closely at the area where the boulder was pressed against both the cave walls and ceiling and the other boulders. The top and left of the boulder were firmly wedged behind areas where the cave shrank slightly into small bumps, not large enough to be considered stalactites, but substantial enough to entirely block the boulder from being pulled back. On its bottom and right side, it was pressed hard against the boulders next to it, enough that Icy doubted they could move it at all and knew they couldn't pull it down enough to dislodge it. It was clear that the only direction it could move was away from them, and that given the huge mound of rock and gravel behind it.

Sunny sighed from next to her. “Seems like it. Well, she started the rockslide so it'd jam them in there with the weight of the rock, but same difference.” She tapped the rock with a hoof. “Hmm, not the hardest stone in the world, but not soft enough to be able to pull it in. And the stuff behind it'll stop us pushing it forward... hmmm....”

“Well, there are a few gaps between it and the other boulders,” Archer pointed out. “Could you maybe levitate through a few rocks at a time and give us a bit of space to push it? It'd take a while, but it'd at least give us a bit of room to play with.”

Sunny shook her head. “Doubt it. Levitating stuff you can't see's tricky at the best of times. Can't make a field inside a solid object, so you need to feel out the area around the thing to figure out how to shape the field. And since there's basically no free space in that area...” she trailed off, letting the implication hang for a moment.

Icy let out a slightly growling sigh at the situation. It seemed like the kind of thing where there'd be something they could do. It wasn't some complex barricade or cleverly trapped security system. It was just a really big rock. There had to be some kind of procedure for dealing with really big rocks. Or at least some way to stop them from being really big rocks.

The thought made Icy blink as it occurred to her. She hesitated for a moment before saying it, but soon realized that there wasn't any downside beyond maybe looking a bit silly if the idea was terrible. And she was pretty sure that, after the day she'd been having, the 'looking silly' boat had long since sailed.

“Could we just, like... smash it? Or at least break it a little?”

To her mild surprise, no one looked at her with any incredulity, instead simply looking the rock up and down in evaluation. And, frankly, actually having her idea considered was enough of a victory for her, even if they declared it futile.

After a few moments, Sunny nodded. “Maybe. Stone's... relatively soft, so maybe we could crack them with a bit of effort. Not sure we can shatter them enough to get them out of the way, but it's worth a try.

Lance held a hoof up, indicating a problem, before flashing his sword out of his scabbard and jabbing it hard up towards the boulder. There was a loud ting as the tip bounced off the solid stone, breaking no more than a tiny chip off the larger boulder. That done, Lance sheathed the blade again and waved a hoof at the boulder, silently asking what they'd use to crack the boulders.

Sunny, however, just waved the concern off. “Oh, don't worry, I've got you covered there. Figured you might need some mountaineering equipment, so I brought some along.” She swung off her saddlebags and opened them up, peering down at the contents. “I mean, I thought I could probably fly you up there, but one of the first rules of survival is to never rely on 'probably' if you can help it.”

Archer smirked and nodded her agreement with the sentiment as Sunny pulled a pickaxe out of the bag – a bag that was not even remotely big enough to contain said pickaxe without massively deforming it and weighing its bearer down.

Now, normally this wouldn't be weird to Icy, as the Bottomless Bag spell, while neither simple to learn nor easy to perform, was a known quantity in pony society and many families had at least one bag that had had the spell infused into it. Such containers weren't cheap, by any means, but were often a very worthwhile investment.

What surprised Icy was that she knew the saddlebags in question and they were not infused with the spell. In fact, if she recalled correctly, they were the bags Sunny had taken to the Town Hall that morning, as distant as that seemed at that moment. That meant that she most likely used the first bags she had to hoof when she’d determined to come and help them, suggesting she was in an understandable hurry. Still, it also meant that the short-term version of the spell – relatively speaking, in that it lasted only a few days – must have been cast on it. And she doubted her mother would have asked anyone else to spend their magical power on such a thing when...

Shaking her head, she realized both that she'd been staring at the bag for quite a while, getting a puzzled look from her mother, and that she could simply say, “I didn't know you knew that spell, Mom.”

Sunny smiled, clearly proud that she'd surprised and slightly impressed her daughter. “Oh yeah. Didn't during my first few expeditions, just used a pre-made one. But let me tell you,” she went back to join others in excavating the rest of the boulders, Icy doing the same a moment later, “after the first time you lose that bag in a swamp and have to start foraging and keeping supplies in an ordinary saddlebag, you learn how useful it is to be able to make backups. Like I said, you don't rely on 'probably.” She chuckled. “Took a heck of a lot of effort to learn, but the BB spell's worth it.”

She hummed for a moment before continuing, obviously just letting her mouth run wild as her hooves worked. “Course, that's a misnomer. Doesn't do anything to the bag itself, let alone make it bottomless. Plus, an actual bottomless bag'd make it impossible to actually retrieve anything from it. It just sets up a field around the bag's opening that shrinks any object that gets put in it, so it gets set to the proportions inside it instead of out. But “Bottomless Bag” rolls off the tongue way better than the spell's actual name.”

“What's that?” Archer asked with mild interest.

“Transmutative Aperture, Reducing Dimensions to Interior Scale,” Sunny remarked with a slight chuckle at the ridiculousness of the name, which Icy couldn't help but join in on.

After that, the group lapsed back into silence as they continued to dig away at the stone, soon revealing the whole of the upper two stones and much of the lower two. As with the first, they were quite thoroughly wedged into the cave walls, such that pulling them through would be impossible. Icy briefly considered the idea of using the bag's magic to shrink them, before realizing that wouldn't work – they'd need to fit through the bag's opening for the magic to affect them, if it even could affect that size of object. And, while it might theoretically have been possible to shrink them without using the bag, her mother's magical exhaustion notwithstanding, she didn't know enough about magic to say that it was the same thing. Given the spell was cast specifically on a container, that probably had something to do with it. Besides, she was sure Sunny would have thought of that if it were an option.

A slight twinge in her left forehoof knocked Icy out of her contemplation, making her blink heavily as she realized just how tired the excavation was making her. Admittedly, it was also likely worsened by the stress and activity the day had already dragged out of her, but it was still notable. She took a brief pause to centre herself and shake out her legs, trying to loosen the slight aches and get a bit more energy into them.

Archer flicked an eye towards her. “You alright there, Icy?” she asked, continuing to dig away at the rapidly dwindling slope of stones.

Icy nodded, a little too hard for comfort. “Uh huh, just a little tired, that's all.”

Sunny looked over, an understanding look on her face. “Okay, sweetie, why don't you rest for a little while? We're almost done with this part anyway.”

Icy shook her head, unable to help feeling a little patronized, even though she knew her mother had no such intentions. “No, I'm okay, might as well get it done, huh?”

Sunny opened her mouth, looking about to accept Icy's sentiment before Archer pre-empted her. “Yeah, but we're gonna need all the energy we can get once we're through this,” she pointed out, not appearing to comprehend the unspoken 'if we're through this'. “Take a break and when these boulders are dealt with, you can put more effort into digging through the rest.

Icy felt her mouth being pushed to the side as she thought about this. As much as she disliked the thought of giving in to her fatigue, she couldn't argue with that point – if they did get through the boulders, it would be a good idea to be relatively fresh when they continued past them and if they didn't, there was no point wasting her energy on this in the first place.

Still, as she backed off, slowly stepping backwards across the thick carpet of rubble they'd displaced with their digging, she did give an “I guess,” to at least feel like she still had her dignity, even if she intellectually knew that was a long-lost cause.

As she sat down, though, she did remember the pledge she'd made weeks ago, only to forget due to having other concerns at the time. “By the way, Mom, I was wondering if I could maybe start joining you when you exercise?”

“Sure thing, honey,” Sunny replied, glancing back at Icy with a proud smile. “We can start whenever you like. And I'll try to go easy on you to start with.”

Icy nodded, taking a few moments’ pause to breathe before responding. “Okay, as long as you think you should. I do want to get a bit more in shape if I'm gonna be on this team. Don't want, well... this to happen again.”

Archer shrugged. “Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure we're all getting a bit bushed right now. We just got more experience dealing with it. Give it a few more missions and you'll be fine.”

Lance gave a nod of agreement, making Icy begin to open her mouth to thank them both. However, before she could even begin to form the words, Archer continued without seeming to think about it.

“Yeah, not gonna be fun when we get back out there.”

The reminder of what was out there knocked the words out of Icy's mind as the huge presence of water on the other side of the suddenly-not-thick-enough rock wall was brought back to the forefront of her mind. The breath that had been gathering in her throat burst out in a quiet yelp as she slammed her eyes shut, trying to shut the thought out and refocus herself on anything else. She desperately hoped that no one had heard her.

No such luck, it seemed, as she heard her mother's voice a moment later. “What was... oh!” Icy opened her eyes to see Sunny looking at her with intense sympathy, something Icy did appreciate even as she hated the fact it was necessary. “I'm sorry, I forgot... we've been spending all this time and effort trying to get back out there, I guess we kind of... forgot that maybe you weren't so eager, huh?” She shrugged with a slight smile, clearly hoping to lighten the mood with a bit of almost-humour.

Icy sighed and shook her head. “I am... okay, maybe I'm not eager, but I do want to get out of here. I mean, yeah, I'm not gonna say it's not scary out there, cause... it really is.” She felt a shiver go through her as if to punctuate the point. “But that doesn't mean I don't want to get out there and deal with it. It doesn't mean that I'd rather be buried in a cave for the rest of my life. And it really doesn't mean I'm gonna stay here and hide while some maniac destroys the town.” She swallowed hard and fixed her mother with a determined stare. “I'm afraid, yeah, but I'm still gonna fight!”

A full, unironic smile blossomed onto Sunny's face. “Wow. You honestly have no idea how proud it makes me to hear how I've raised such a brave and... heroic daughter.”

Icy's face scrunched a little, her confusion over the first description dampening the pride she might otherwise have gained from the second. “Huh? Brave? I just told you how scared I am.”

Sunny nodded. “And you're going to do what you need to do anyway. That's bravery!”

Icy blinked, still unsure what she meant. Still, after a moment, she shrugged. “If you say so... I guess?” She shook her head and looked to the side. “Not like staying in here would make it better anyway.”

Sunny nodded in understanding. “Fair enough. I guess even if you can't see or hear what's scaring you, you still know something is, so you're going to feel just as bad for not helping as you would if you did.”

Icy shook her head. “No... well, yeah, kind of, but that's not what I meant.” She indicated the stone blockade, prompting Sunny to begin turning back, rearing up to start digging again. “I just meant that even with all that stone there, I can still feel the water.”

Sunny stopped halfway through turning around, standing weirdly still for a moment with one hoof in midair before she turned her head back towards Icy. “Huh?”

Icy shrugged. “Well, I can... I can feel it outside. I can feel it all falling and running,” she said, unsure how else to explain it. “Like... it's just there, you know?”

Archer glanced behind her at Icy. “No, we don't know. Could you be a little more specific?”

Sunny shot a momentary glare at Archer. “If you feel up to it – whatever it is, it's probably not something you want to think about too much.”

Little late for that, Icy thought – now that her attention had been drawn to the feeling, it was difficult to ignore it. “Well, I don't think it'll make things worse, I'm just not sure how to describe it. It's like... you know how you don't need to look at your legs and body to know where they are, you just kind of... know?”

“Proprioception?” Sunny asked, prompting a shrug from Icy.

“Probably, if that's what it's called? Well, anyway, it's like that, but a lot less powerful.” She shot an uneasy glance at and through the barricade. “Well, most of the time – when I'm right in the middle of it, it can feel like that. Though it's not totally the same, since I can still tell my body apart from it, but it's a similar kind of thing... I think?” She gave another shrug to get across just how little she understood it or how to put it into words.

To their credit, none of the others looked especially annoyed at Icy's inability to adequately explain her feeling. Archer did give her a raised eyebrow, though it seemed more doubtful than disapproving.

After a moment of silence, she just pursed her lips to the side, her hoof tapping the bottom of the bow on her back as she thought. “And you're sure this... “feeling” is real? You're sure it's not all just in your head?”

Icy hummed as she thought about that, her brow furrowing as she quickly reached her conclusion. “No, no I'm not sure of that at all. Maybe it is all in my head, that's totally possible. But, well... if it is, how would I know? I mean, if it is in my head, well... so am I.”

Archer frowned a little, her mouth pressing into a thin line as she considered this. After a couple of seconds, she sighed. “Fair point, I guess, and even if it is, that doesn't make it any less of a problem for you – sorry if I seemed like I was saying it was.”

Icy shook her head. “It's okay – it is kinda weird, I know that.”

Archer nodded. “Yep, either way it is. Though, well, I'm not sure about you having some sixth sense specifically for water, but, hey, doesn't make much of a difference right now, I guess,” she finished before turning back to the rock pile.

Sunny's gaze lingered on Archer for a few seconds, not angry or objecting to her sentiment, but still not looking entirely approving of how she was talking about it. Still, after a short while, she too turned back to the task at hoof. “Well, yeah, it is more likely that it's psychosomatic – I've never heard of trauma and gaining a phobia giving someone an actual sense for their fear – but I'm not going to say it's impossible either.”

“Oh, no, it wasn't started by that,” Icy said without thinking, “I had a weird sense for it way before the time I almost...” she trailed off, having not even registered the reference to her near-drowning until she thought about it.

However, she was soon thankfully distracted from that memory by her mother freezing in place once more. “What... what do you mean?”

Icy looked up, a little startled by her mother's tone. “I, uh... well, I've always gotten kind of a... bad feeling from water. It didn't make me...” she felt a shiver go through her, “yeah before, but it always weirded me out.

Sunny stayed frozen for a few seconds, one hoof in the midst of digging away a swath of rubble. After that, she blinked a few times as her hoof finished sweeping it away, clearly without her thinking about it. She turned to Lance and Archer, jerking her head slightly towards the pile, silently asking them if they could handle it without her. Both nodded, Archer with a pleasantly unconcerned shrug and Lance with only a brief look away from his digging efforts.

Nodding back gratefully, Sunny turned towards Icy and began walking up to her, a gentle smile on her face. “Is that why you always put off learning to swim?”

Icy nodded, looking away a little in embarrassment. “Yeah, kind of. Sorry I never told you, it just... it never seemed important. I mean, it wasn't a really big thing or anything. I mean, it didn't stop me going near water or anything, just gave me a weird sense when I did. And it wasn't for little things – I mean, you know I could still have baths and drink from glasses, it was just for big... er...”

“...bodies of water?” Sunny suggested.

Icy nodded, even as her eyebrows lowered as she considered the phrase – if a lake or a big river was a “body” of water, did that mean a small stream or creek would be a limb of water, a pond would be an organ of water or a puddle would be an appendix of water?

However, she was soon brought out of her mental tangent by the feeling of her mother sitting down alongside her, not quite hugging her, but still pressed lightly against her and able to give her either a neck hug or a full enveloping hug at a moment's notice.

“It's okay if you don't want to think about it, sweetie, but... do you think you can tell me exactly how it made you feel?”

Icy nodded into her mother's coat, the physical contact helping keep her grounded as she tried her best to think of the feeling she used to get from water without confusing it with the fear she felt now at those memories.

It took a good minute or so for her to fully parse her feelings, but eventually, she swallowed before beginning to speak.

“Well, it wasn't really how it made me feel... I mean, it did make me feel something, but, well, not like it was putting the feeling in my head, it just... felt like it was something and that made me kind of uneasy. It always just felt kind of, well, the best way I can explain it is it felt like it was... hungry.”

“Hungry?” Sunny asked, her eyebrows raising sharply.

Icy bobbed her head from side to side for a moment. “Kinda. That's the best word I can think of for it. It was like it... like it wanted me to come into it. Like there was some empty space in it that it wanted me to fill. Like it wasn't trying to grab me or suck me in, but it was still... trying to get me to dive in. It just... kinda creeped me out.” She let out a short, barking laugh without any kind of humour. “I don't know why it felt like that... or I felt like it did, I just did.”

She chanced a look up to her mother, curious how she would be taking her daughter explaining how screwed up she might be. However, as it turned out, Sunny wasn't even looking at her, instead simply staring ahead with her eyes wide, as if she'd just realized something monumental.

Icy opened her mouth to ask about this, but Sunny beat her to it as she said, a little distantly, “No. No, I don't suppose you would, would you?”

Icy frowned, unsure what her mother meant but getting an uneasy feeling from her. “Mom? Do you... know something about this?”

Sunny gulped, suddenly looking intensely uncomfortable. “Well, no, I wouldn't say I know anything about it, not for certain. But, well, now you've told me about this I... do have some suspicions.”

“Suspicions?” Icy asked, getting the distinct sense from her mother's tone that there was more to whatever she was thinking than a random guess.

Sunny nodded. “Yeah, it... well, you having a... sense for water kind of... gives a bit more credence to a possibility I've always dismissed. See, it's...” she looked off to the side. “Well, it's kind of a long story.”

Icy raised an eyebrow as she looked over to the others. Lance was finishing sweeping away the final clumps of rocks near the ground while Archer was picking up the pickaxe, weighing and swinging it experimentally. Nodding to herself at her thought, Icy turned back to her mother. “We've got a long time.”

Sunny sighed as she closed her eyes a moment, as if willing herself to accept that fact. “I suppose. It's just, well... I never told you much about your father, did I?”

Icy's head jerked back a little in surprise at her mother willingly bringing it up. “Er, no, not really. I mean, I remember I asked you once and you did tell me you met him on one of your expeditions, but you looked really sad and hurt when you did, so I decided not to ask any more. I always figured he must have really hurt you somehow.”

Sunny let out a single, humourless laugh. “Oh, no, nothing like that. At least, not directly – he was a perfect...  Well, it's just that despite how much we... it's all around a period that I... don't really like remembering.”

Icy shifted slightly to press herself a little tighter against her mother's side, and nuzzled under her chin, silently offering her sympathies.

Sunny returned the nuzzle with a melancholy smile. “I know, but I think it... may help. You see, it all started during an expedition into the frozen north.”

“Near the Crystal Empire?” Icy asked before blinking as she realized the time frame involved. “Or, well, where the Empire was going to come back?”

Sunny shook her head gently, so as not to disrupt Icy's place against her neck. “Oh, no, a fair bit further north and a lot further east. Out where there's pretty much nothing but miles upon miles upon miles of empty ice and snow. One of the villages near the outskirts of the wastes had reported some weird weather patterns and so an expedition had been set up to see if there was anything wrong. It sounded like it could be fun and interesting, so I went to join.”

“Was it?” Icy asked, knowing that her mother had some fairly good instincts when it came to choosing when and where to travel on her expeditions. Neither she nor her mother questioned whether a journey into a potentially lethally cold climate could be considered 'fun'.

Sunny let out a long, slow sigh. “In theory, yeah, it probably should have been but... well, you see, there are a lot of things to take into account when you're planning a journey and one of the ones that... well, you only learn when you fail is whether the others you'll be travelling with are really the sort of ponies. or other races, that you want to spend a long, long time alone with. You pick travel partners you don't get on with and a simple trek can turn into a nightmare.” She let out a small snort of detached amusement. “Thought I'd already learned that lesson, but I guess I needed a refresher course.”

Icy looked up to her mother, a little astonished at her having made such a mistake, let alone admitting it so freely. “Oh, were the others... really nasty or something?”

Sunny's mouth began to move even as her eyes were still going back to Icy, clearly still parsing the question as her lips began forming the 'y' of 'yeah...'. However, before she could start speaking, she shook her head sharply. “No, no I guess not, not really. It's just that they kinda... rubbed me the wrong way.” She gave another snort, though this one was a little more exasperated at the memory. “The leader of the expedition was a fastidious little guy who just wouldn't let up about keeping things neat and counted. I mean, don't get me wrong, I know just how important it is to be efficient and keep track of things – attention to detail's important when you're out in the wilds – but I'm honestly surprised he didn't keep count of how many bits of toilet roll we used or limit how many chews we could eat our rations with.

“On the other hoof, we had a pretty young weather pegasus with us, part of a team of them, and she was right on the other side of the curve – so impulsive we had to keep literally holding her back from darting off and getting herself lost. The times I had to grab that little airhead by the tail... might not have been so bad if it was possible to keep your tail clean and washed when you're out in the wastes, but that's the gig, I guess. And then there was Bora...”

Icy blinked, shocked at the venom with which Sunny hissed out the name. “Bora?”

Sunny nodded, taking a moment to let out a slow breath and calm her recollected emotions. “Bora Breeze. She was a local and like me, she was there to help guide the others through the tundra. Now that's fine, I'm not going to get territorial about my job – I know perfectly well that having two guides working together can be a real boon, plus her knowing that specific area meant she should have been a great help if we worked together. Trouble is, I guess she didn't think so.

“See, she seemed to think that since I wasn't from around there and I'd spent time in cities, that I must have been some naïve, presumptuous windbag who thought I knew everything about the world cause I'd read a book once. No matter how much I showed how useful I could be or how I helped, she'd always look at me with the same pitying contempt and make sure everyone knew how she totally could have done it herself, even when she plainly couldn't. Basically, she was an arrogant, patronizing bi- er, bit-more-than-obnoxious jerk,” Sunny finished, coughing slightly as she veered the conversation sharply.

Icy wasn't focusing on that, however. “Wow, that sounds... really bad.”

Sunny growled quietly, though she sounded more annoyed at her own words than the remembered events. “Yeah, I know, they always do when I say them to myself. But... I don't actually think they were that bad.”

“Huh?” Icy scowled in confusion at Sunny's seeming one-eighty. “What do you mean?”

“Well, yeah, they had their annoying points and quirks and I think they would grate on most ponies' nerves but... I mean, they weren't total jerks.” Sunny paused for a second. “Okay, so Bora was a pretty big jerk, but even she wasn't the worst pony I've ever met. Other than her, though, the other two could get obnoxious, sure, but it wasn't constant and they were fine a lot of the time, and all the other ponies on the expedition were totally fine – no matter how hard I look back, I can't see any issues I could have taken with them. And, well, I'm not going to say that I'm above equine emotions or anything, but I like to think I'm professional enough to deal with one pain in the neck and a couple of occasional irritants without losing my cool. I'd done it before, after all. And yet, even though I can see with hindsight that things weren't that bad, when I think of that time, all I can remember is getting irritated beyond belief.”

Icy blinked, trying in vain to see some reason for her mother to have felt like that. “So, what was different? Why'd you get so angry that time?”

Sunny threw up the hoof Icy wasn't next to. “I wish I knew, believe me. Best I can figure, I was just having an off week. Happens to the best of us, I guess. Whatever the reason, I was just getting more and more huffy and irritable with every day that passed as we travelled. Every little annoyance seemed like the most offensive thing and every moment that passed without one just gave me time to stew on the ones there had already been. Even the others in the party started to get on my nerves, simply because they didn't seem to react to the things that annoyed me, not to mention they kept their distance from me. Though looking back, I can't really blame them, considering how snippy I was getting. Still, it didn't help.”

Icy gulped hard, more than a little disturbed at hearing about her mother behaving like this. Admittedly, a large part of it was that she found it extremely difficult to imagine her caring, upbeat, gregarious mother ever acting so antisocial, and yet the honesty and detail in her words didn't give Icy much of a choice, resulting in an intensely unsettling image. She knew it wouldn't come close to overwhelming how she knew her mother to be after Icy's whole life's experience, but it was a disconcerting thing to juxtapose with it.

Sunny seemed to notice Icy's discomfort, as she pressed herself a little harder into her side to comfort her, even as she sighed. “Eventually, things all came to a head,” she continued, her look of pain and embarrassment increasing. “One morning, while I was getting up, I heard one of the weather pegasi... not the one I had a problem with, one I hadn't really thought anything negative about at that point, which might be why it stung so badly. Anyway, I heard him sneering at me and my Talent – that I was a unicorn who was brought for her skill at flying. He was scoffing at me being brought along with the weather team and talking about how a hang glider could never come close to a 'proper' pair of wings and how I was just some arrogant pretender.

“Of course, I'd later learn he was just letting his own frustration boil over after I'd insisted on taking my glider with me – even disassembled, it's no small amount of kit and meant everypony else carrying more stuff so I'd have room for it in my gear. Still, at the time, it was the last straw. You can insult me all you like, but nopony, but nopony, makes fun of my baby!” Sunny snorted as she looked between the glider and Icy. “Either of you.”

Even with how unnerving the story was, Icy found herself smiling for a moment, her heart warmed by the determination in her mother's tone.

After a moment of smiling back, Sunny's face fell as she went on. “So, I stepped away from the camp a little, rammed together my glider and, well, I kind of... stormed off. I just took off and flew away. I did fly over the camp – the wind was in the right direction, I think, though I don't think I was exactly sad that I was letting them know I was done with them. A couple of pegasi, the guy I'd overheard included, did try and catch up to me. I don't know if they wanted to bring me back or just ask what I was doing, but I didn't care. Didn't make a difference anyway – they couldn't chase me for long before they had to go back to camp or else risk getting lost. Which makes sense, since that was exactly what I was doing.”

Sunny gave a short, sharp exhale that suggested a heavily suppressed laugh. “Felt one heck of a lot of satisfaction over how I outpaced and outmanoeuvred every one of them, though. Still feel kind of good about it, even if I'm... kind of ashamed I do.”

Icy nodded, understanding and almost wishing she didn't. “So, where did you go?”

“Well, while I was flying, I wasn't really 'going' anywhere,” Sunny answered, shaking her head in disappointment at her past self. “I was just flying, just moving. Didn't matter where, as long as it was away from them, away from anypony... from anyone. I mean, you'd think, you'd really think that when you're flying above the clouds in a frozen wasteland, with nothing to look at and your clothes the only thing keeping you from freezing solid, that maybe your head might clear a little, you might give things some thought and re-evaluate your choices a little, but nope! I just kept flying forward, not thinking about anything except putting distance between me and anyone who could come and bother me.

“Eventually, though, I started getting too cold even for me to tolerate. Fortunately, I saw a cave in a nearby mountain and diverted my flight in that direction. Was a big one, too. Was easier fitting my glider in there than it was in here, let me tell you.” Sunny chuckled as she looked around the cave she was currently in. “Plus, it just seemed like the best place to just sit and stay, away from anyone else who could piss me off. Just the perfect place to be totally, one-hundred-percent alone.”

Icy took a shaking breath in, unnerved by the steel in her mother's tone, obviously remembered from how her emotions had been at the time. If anything, it suggested that, back then, she was even more determined to isolate herself completely than she sounded while recounting the story.

Sunny stared ahead hard as she talked, as if afraid that looking away or relaxing her gaze would break her composure completely. “After that things get... hazy. I remember some stuff, but the exact details just... didn't seem to register and I can't really remember much of a timeline. All I can remember of what happened next was that I went into that cave and just... sat there. For... maybe a couple of days, I just sat and fumed. I don't know what I was going to do after that. I don't even think I knew back then. I honestly think I might have just sat there until I either froze or ran out of food and starved. Probably the former – I think I might have even had a bit of frost on my coat after a while, but starvation was also an option. That is, if Jet hadn't found me.”

At her mother's slightly brightened tone, Icy looked up, a smile poking its way onto her face. “Jet? Was he my dad?”

Sunny nodded. “Jet Stream.”

“Oh!” Icy interjected before her mother could continue. “Was he a pegasus? Is that why I'm...” She ruffled her wings to illustrate them.

Sunny frowned slightly in contemplation. “I don't think so. I do remember seeing some wings on him, but they did not look like pegasus wings.”

Icy returned the frown, confused. “So, was he a batpony? A changeling? A breezie?!”

Sunny laughed, her smile brightening at the idea. “Well, I'm pretty sure he wasn't a breezie, since I wasn't in danger of stepping on him, and if he was a changeling, how would I know?” She thought for a moment. “As for a batpony... no, I didn't get a good look at his wings, but I remember his coat and he wasn't nearly the right sort of shade for a batpony. In fact, he was pale-coated even for a pony.”

“You... didn't see his wings?” Icy asked, still unclear why that would be.

Sunny's laugh died down to a chuckle. “Well, the first time I saw him was when I'd just woken up, with his face right next to mine, looking at me with pretty obvious curiosity, so it was his face that really made an impact on me.”

Icy's eyebrows let up slightly but remained somewhat furrowed as her confusion simply switched subjects. “Why was he curious about you? He’d never seen somepony like you before?”

Sunny shrugged. “Maybe, but I just assumed he was wondering what I was doing sleeping in a cave in the middle of nowhere.” She gulped, the tension in her body and discomfort on her face returning. “Course, I didn't really give him a chance to explain himself, as I tore into him pretty much as soon as I opened my eyes. I was still pretty pissed off from everything, so I just...” she took in a deep breath to steady herself, “I called him creepy for just looking at a stranger while they were sleeping and told him to just... go away,” she said the words carefully, making it clear that that wasn't the phrase she'd said at the time, “and leave me alone.

“He was shocked and scared. I mean, I can't really blame him – I was a total stranger and I was yelling at him like everything in the world was his fault. And even then, I could tell he was a skittish little thing. But... as horrible as it feels to say it, I'm kind of glad he was so frightened and... saddened. Because that – that expression; that look of hurt, surprise and fear on his face... let me tell you, 'puppy-dog eyes' doesn't even begin to cover it. Anything less, and I'd probably have stayed angry, but with that look, I just... I don't know how, when nothing else would, but it got through to me. And before he could run away – and that didn't give me much time, I could tell – I calmed down and apologized. Wasn't gushing or begging for forgiveness, even if maybe I should have, but I did say sorry. I told him I was just having a bad few weeks and... well, he was still scared, I could tell, but he... he asked me what was wrong and I... I just let it all out.”

Icy blinked in astonishment at the term. “You mean you... cried?” she asked, unable to remember a time when her mother had shed a tear in front of her.

Sunny laughed bitterly. “If only – that would have been a much healthier response. No, I exploded, venting about every tiny little annoyance and frustration I'd felt for the last few weeks and then even further back. I spewed such a torrent of vitriol I'm surprised he didn't drown. But he didn't. And he didn't run away either, even if I could tell he was scared by how angry I was. He stayed until I just kind of ran dry of rage and just told him... told him to go away again. And he refused and told me he wouldn't leave me alone.

“I asked him why and... and I'll never forget what he said to me. And even more, I won't forget how he said it – the gentle determination in his tone and the way he stared at me, his eyes filled with such sympathy, but with a fire behind them as he looked into my eyes and said:

“Because you needed that… and I can tell you need more. So I’m staying to provide whatever I can. Maybe just an ear to listen, maybe someone to talk to, maybe even… hopefully… a friend.”

Sunny got a slightly dreamy smile on her face even as she sighed. “If I hadn't been so wrapped up in my anger, I honestly think I'd have fallen in love with him then and there.”

After a moment, her smile faded. “But I was, so I didn't. Still, that wonderful moment did cut me off from insisting I didn't need anything or anypony and that we weren't friends. Instead, I just mumbled some thanks and lay down – all that ranting had tired me out, I guess. And when I woke up, he was still there, laying his head on his hooves as he dozed. Even as angry as I still was, I didn't have the heart to wake him.

“Still, he did wake up himself after a while and didn't even call me a hypocrite for watching him sleep. Wasn't thinking clearly enough to recognize that at the time, of course, but I appreciate that in hindsight.

“We had breakfast together... I think – didn't exactly have the greatest idea of the time in a cave. I remember he had kelp while I had my ration packs. And we got to talking. He asked me all kinds of questions – who I was, why I was there, where I'd come from, what my home was like and what all the places I'd been were like and...” Sunny trailed off a little, shaking her head. “The questions never seemed to end and yet... yet I can't honestly say I got tired of them. I was... pretty brusque and guarded at first, but he didn't take it personally and I... well, I loosened up pretty well over the next couple of days. He was just so... sincere.”

Sunny's dreamy smile returned, this time in full force. “He had this earnest curiosity about him. Not only did he want to know everything about me and my... my world, I guess you could say, but he honestly seemed to know how little he knew and never presumed anything or jumped to any conclusions or judgements about events or me. When he asked me a question, I could tell it was because he honestly wanted to know the answer, never because he already had an idea and wanted to confirm or deny it. And he had the most adorable little head tilt whenever he was confused by something, it was just so...”

She blinked as she realized just how off-topic and gushy she was getting. “Sorry, that's not...”

“It's okay,” Icy assured her, nuzzling under her chin a little. “It's actually really nice to hear about him. Did you learn anything about him and where he came from?”

Sunny shook her head. “Not a lot, no. Oh, not because I couldn't have – looking back, I'm pretty sure he would have told me all about it if I'd asked. It's just that...” she gave an uncomfortable smile that told of how she knew she should be ashamed but couldn't bring herself to feel bad about it, “well, by the time I was open enough to be curious, we'd moved on from talking just about me to, well... pretty much everything. Some things were relevant and real and a lot weren't.”

She smiled down at her daughter. “I always assumed that he was where you got your imagination from. He had these wonderful little flights of fantasy that just...” she trailed off into a small laugh, somewhere between a gentle chuckle and a lovestruck giggle.

Icy raised her eyebrows as she considered this. “Thanks... I think?” She knew, probably more than most, how much of a double-edged sword her imagination was and while she was definitely thankful for its ability to entertain and enrich her, she did wish it was a little less expansive so she wouldn't get lost in it so often.

However, Sunny nodded, making it clear it had been a compliment. “I did learn a few things as we meandered our way through conversation. I remember him telling me he was an explorer too and the reason he was so imaginative was because most of the places he went didn't have much to look at, so he needed to entertain himself. I figured that he must go to a lot of snowy wastelands like the one we were in. He said that he was currently travelling very, very far from home.” She gave a slightly more abashed chuckle at that. “Thinking about it, that would probably have been the ideal time to ask him about where he came from, but I got a bit... distracted.

“See, he told me how he had only planned to take a quick look into the cave to see if there was anything notable in there. But then he saw me.” Her face lit up, practically luminescent with her blush. “He said he'd never seen anyone like me before and was fascinated by seeing someone who looked like me.” She shrugged, her eyes darting to the side in embarrassment. “I just figured he must be from some remote village and had never seen a unicorn before. It's not as farfetched as you'd think. I certainly didn't assume he was captivated by my beauty – I'd been travelling through the tundra and living in a cave for weeks, I wasn't gonna be winning any pageants, let alone be pretty enough to catch the attention of someone like him.”

She shook her head, her smile rising gently. “Didn't have time to question it, though, as he started rambling about how that was just what first drew him to me and how, once he got talking to me, I was the most fascinating and charming pony he'd ever met.” The corners of her mouth shot up into a full-on beam. “Course, he didn't seem to realize he'd called me charming until afterwards, since he started instinctively trying to walk it back before realizing that might sound bad and babbling how I was charming and beautiful and then just realizing he'd called me beautiful and getting even more flustered and, well...” she let out a dreamy sigh. “It was for his benefit as much as mine when I kissed him.”

Icy let out a short, surprised breath. On some level, she knew that was what her mother was leading up to, but it still felt weird to think of her in that context.

It wasn't helped when Sunny went on, “I still remember the feeling of his lips on mine. He had an oddly long muzzle – closer to a Saddle Arabian than any pony I'd ever met, but much thinner and more elegant. And his mouth was... wet and tasted very salty. Probably from the kelp he'd been eating, I thought. Still, I wouldn't have traded the feeling or the taste for the world. It was just...”

Icy nudged her mother. “Erm, I'm sure it was, but is it really... like, do we need to...”

Sunny raised an eyebrow at her daughter. “As you wish. But, well, it is important. See, it started as just a quick kiss, but things quickly got... more intense. More... intimate.”

Icy jerked her head back in surprise. Admittedly, she didn't know the exact details of the kinds of things Sunny was alluding to, but she knew the basic gist of it and that it was much more advanced than kissing. And also that it was where babies came from which, now that she thought about it, meant she shouldn't have been that surprised, but there she was. “Isn't that... a little bit quick?”

Sunny's eyebrow remained firmly raised. “That depends on who you ask, but I wouldn't worry about it. We'd been talking for... about a week, I'd reckon, and I'm fairly certain we'd both fallen in love long before the kiss made it official. Plus... well, I wasn't exactly thinking clearly given... well, I did still need an outlet.”

Icy blinked in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Sunny gulped loudly, looking intensely embarrassed and a little disturbed. “Well, you'd think... you really think that once I'd opened up, got talking to someone I like and out-and-out fallen in love... that all that anger would go away, right?” She shook her head before Icy could even think to answer. “But no. It was the weirdest thing. It was like... the anger didn't go away or even shrink. It remained just as big and nasty as always, it was just that everything else – the happiness, curiosity, affection – all grew bigger and bigger until it dwarfed the anger. But even then, it wasn't enough to allow me to ignore it.

“After a while, I started to feel like I was...” she gave an amused snort. “Like I was a Strange Case of Mr Jackal and Dr Hide. Like there were two different, totally separate sides of me. I occasionally snapped at him when I shouldn't, but he seemed to take it well, if a little alarmed at points, but I did always manage to apologize and calm him down. And fortunately, most of the time, either my anger was too busy fuming to bother the rest of me or the rest of me was having too good a time to notice.” She thought for a moment. “Or both. Both's always an option.”

There was a pause as both Sunny and Icy seemed to take a moment to be unnerved by the concept.

“Wow,” Icy said after a moment. “That's... weird.”

“You're telling me,” Sunny replied before shaking her head. “Anyway, I'm pretty sure the tension and agitation were driving my actions as well as my affection since I got... pretty vigorous. Not that he minded – he was with me every step of the way, believe me. Heck, he might have been even more energetic about it. We...”

Icy cleared her throat sharply, making it clear just how little she wanted to hear the intimate details of this.

Sunny paused, looking to the side as her face lit up again, this time in embarrassment. “Oh, sorry, I didn't think... It's just that remembering was...” She swallowed hard and shrugged with a sheepish smile. “Sorry.”

Icy sighed. “It's okay, Mom, I get that it's important, but... could we maybe skip the… you know?”

Sunny nodded. “Yeah, that's probably for the best. Besides, the next important part of the story didn't happen till we were... all done with that. Because once we were just... finishing,” she frowned slightly, clearly disturbed by the memory, “that's when things got... weird.”

“Weird?” Icy asked. If she was honest, she'd have used that word to describe the entire situation her mother was relating, but she got the distinct impression from her tone that this was on a different level. “How?”

Sunny shrugged. “To be honest, I can't really remember it that clearly. But when things got to a... got to their most intense point, there was a kind of... the only word I can think of for it is “explosion”, though I honestly can't say how much of it was in my head and how much was real. But it felt like some kind of incredible blast. But I think something happened in the real world, at least, because I remember there was a massive noise and... and I remember Jet's face.

“He was... scared. Terrified, even. It didn't seem to be directed at me, but whatever was happening spooked him. Badly. I remember his head turning away as he ran and... well, that was about all I remember for a while. Next thing I knew, I was waking up on the cave floor. I was pretty groggy, but honestly, I felt better than I had in weeks. My head was clear and I was thinking straight again. It was like waking up after a horrible, immersive dream. But, well, the only thing that put a damper on that was that Jet, the one part of the metaphorical dream that had been good, that had kept me sane and stable during the nightmare... he was gone.”

Icy wiped at her eyes, trying to dry their sudden moistness on her fur. “Didn't he come back for you?”

Sunny sighed. “Well, not for a day, at least. He did say he'd found the cave at random, so I figure that maybe he ran far enough that he got lost and couldn't find it again.” She gave a short, macabre laugh. “I hope that's the case, anyway.” She closed her eyes and took in a deep, shaking breath, dabbing at her own eyes with a hoof. “Of course, he could probably have found his way back eventually but... I couldn't stay.

“I wanted to!” she added hastily, as if defending herself from some phantom accusation that she ran away herself. “I wanted to wait for days, weeks, however long it took. But... well, my rations were running low, I knew there wasn't anything around I could really forage and if I didn't leave then, there was no way I'd have enough supplies and energy to make it back to civilization.”

She shook her head. “It was obvious. The choice was between leaving and surviving or waiting and almost certainly dying there. I knew in my head what I had to do. But...” she gulped hard, “but it was still the hardest choice I've ever had to make in my entire life.”

Icy pressed herself harder into her mother's side and nuzzled her chest, trying to both provide comfort and wipe away her own tears. “You did the right thing, Mom. It sounds like he really loved you and if he did, he wouldn't have wanted you to wait around if it meant you'd probably die there.”

Sunny nodded, her chin lightly brushing against the top of Icy's head. “I suppose. It doesn't make me feel any better, but I guess I'll just have to keep telling myself that. Although,” a hint of her normal, more playful tone edged onto her voice, “given that if I hadn't, I never would have had you, I'm not sure we can say you're totally unbiased on the matter.”

Icy giggled into her mother's coat. “So what happened next?”

Sunny shrugged. “Not much of note. I made my way back to civilization, tried to get in contact with the rest of the party and, once I learned they'd been searching for me pretty much non-stop, managed to call them back and assure them I was okay. Happy to say I made up with them and apologized for being so... I mean, I can't think of a better word than ‘childish’ about things. They were just happy I was okay and, I'll be honest, I think I made better friends with them then than I did for the weeks I'd known them before.”

She got a slight smile as she said, “Even Bora Breeze wasn't... too obnoxious. She was still pretty clear in her belief she was better than me, but she was impressed that I'd managed to survive on my own out there for so long. Didn't feel like telling her I had a bit of help with that.” Her smile briefly shot up to a smirk before dimming again. “Still, it was something. Nice to know she cared at least a little.”

Icy nodded. “Sounds like they cared more than a little if they'd spent all that time looking for you.”

Sunny bobbed her head to the side, silently moderating the sentiment a little. “Well, it helped that the weird weather we'd been sent to investigate had cleared up. Still not sure what was up with that, come to think of it. But yeah, it did feel nice. Almost enough to dampen the feeling of what I'd left behind. Of course,” she smiled down at her daughter, “a few weeks later, I found out I'd have something to remember him by. Or rather, someone. And let me tell you, Sweetie,” she ruffled Icy's hair with her chin, “you're the best souvenir I could have ever asked for.”

Icy giggled, a beaming smile on her face. There was a moment of silence between the two as Icy absorbed the feeling of love she was getting from her mother, the two relaxing into the half-hug they had going, neither wanting to move even enough to make it into a full hug.

A moment later, the sense of connection dimmed just enough that the repeated sounds of a pickaxe striking stone registered with Icy and she remembered where they were and what they were doing.

With the realization came a question. “So, that was a really nice story but, um... what does it have to do with...” she took a moment to work backwards along the conversation to remind herself how it started, “with my being able to feel water?”

Sunny's eyes widened a little, making it clear she'd gotten as caught up in the story as Icy had. “Oh, right. Well, there are a couple of things about my time with Jet that... well, I wasn't really thinking straight enough to notice at the time, but I realized looking back. For one thing, I can remember his face like it was still in front of me – his bright green eyes, his pale blue fur and dark green mane, all shiny and clumping together, the elegant curve of his muzzle that... ahem,” she shook her head briefly to refocus herself, “anyway, I can remember all of that, but I don't have the first clue what his Cutie Mark was.”

Icy flinched back in shock. “You... you were... that close with someone you hadn't even seen the Mark of?!” That was like falling in love with someone whom you'd never made eye contact with.

Sunny nodded uncomfortably. “Seems that way. Only way I can think that makes sense is if he didn't have one.”

Icy thought for a moment. “You mean he was Saddle Arabian?”

“That's what I thought too,” Sunny said, though the discomfort still on her face suggested she wasn't entirely convinced. “But then I realized that I had no idea what his entire back half looked like, marked or not. And then there was the other thing. You see, when I finally left the cave, I found that, though I hadn't really remembered doing it, I'd buried the whole of the entrance in snow. Must have taken me a heck of a long time, but I did it. And, unless I was very much mistaken... it didn't seem like anyone had moved the snow since I'd put it down. And there wasn’t any other way into the cave that a pony could have used.

Icy scowled in confusion as she tried to parse this information. “So... you think he was a ghost?”

Sunny rolled her eyes in amusement at the idea. “I doubt it. And, well, there are ways he could have gotten in or out without disturbing the snow – teleportation, phasing spells, some magically hidden entrance or portal – but I'm positive he didn't have a horn. And, well, I remembered there was one other possible way in and out of the cave. See, thing is,” she took a lengthy pause as she built up to her ultimate conclusion, “a big part of the cave was underwater. And any other exit would be, too. And unless I was really off my game, I don't think there was any air in that direction. Pretty sure it led out to sea eventually.”

Icy raised an eyebrow as she collated all the information in her mind, trying to see what her mother was getting at. A pony with a rear half that wasn't normal, that didn't have to breathe, that could swim for a long time and that had some home or vessel on or near the sea. Or possibly just lived in the sea, but she didn't think anypony could...

Her eyes widened. No way...

“You...” Icy could hardly bring herself to say it, it sounded so ridiculous and yet... so strangely, sincerely believable. “You think he was a... a sea p-”

“I don't know,” Sunny interrupted, as if she couldn't stop the uncertainty from bursting out of her. “I always figured it was silly, that there was no way he could have been...” she shook her head. “I assumed he must have had some other way in and out of the cave or... just that he was able to hold his breath long enough to swim it... and avoid freezing... somehow. But, well... I did always wonder. I mean, it's not like anyone's ever shown evidence or reason why they definitely don't exist, just that no one's ever seen one. And if you do have some kind of sense for water... Well, now I'm wondering a lot more, is all.”

Icy gulped, feeling rather unnerved by the idea, even if it took her a moment to understand why – her fear of water made the prospect of having some inescapable connection to it terrifying on principle. She knew that that was probably irrational... but then, so was the phobia itself, but that didn't make it any less debilitating. So, even if the connection was in some way positive, it didn't feel like it. Although that did raise another question.

“But, if it's some... some real connection,” Icy began after a moment's thought, “why did it always feel so... so weird? Why'd the water always feel so hungry?”

Sunny shook her head. “Your guess is as good as mine. Actually, since you've experienced this feeling firsthoof, your guess is probably better. Maybe it's something to do with only being part... maybe-aquatic. Maybe the sense itself isn't necessarily a good thing. Or...” she paused and looked to the side for a moment, her mouth pulling back to broadcast her hesitation in saying what she said next. “Or maybe... it's just a matter of perspective. Maybe it's because you didn't have context for the feeling and it was kind of intimidating. Maybe... maybe the feeling that the water wanted you to come in was right, but it didn't want to consume you, just... welcome you.”

There was a pause as both considered this, Icy trying to push past her revulsion at the prospect to analyse the feeling that she'd always taken for granted and tried to avoid thinking about. It was difficult overcoming both her more recently-gained terror and the disturbance she'd always felt but, at the very least, she couldn't say for certain that her mother's speculation was impossible.

After a few seconds, she was brought out of her contemplation by her mother shrugging. “Or maybe that's a load of nonsense. I don't know. I don't even know how your ice powers work, let alone anything else.”

Icy nodded before a thought occurred. “Hey, you don't think that maybe this... this has something to do with my powers, do you?”

Sunny hummed as she thought about it. “I mean, it's not impossible, but I doubt it. I mean, water and ice... yeah, they're technically the same substance, but I don't see what water has to do with freezing things. Not much of a connection there as far as I can see. If anything, maybe it had something to do with being, um... conceived in the frozen north, but I doubt he had that much to do with it.”

“Yeah, about that...”

Sunny and Icy both whipped their heads up in surprise at Archer speaking. She was looking over at them as she thumped away at the rock with the pickaxe held in her front hooves. Next to her, Lance was standing stiffly for her to lean against and balance, looking more like a statue than a colt.

Archer's eyes flicked to Sunny and Icy. “Yeah, sorry,” she said, even if she didn't sound very apologetic, “couldn't help but overhear – you weren't exactly whispering. Still, it's a good story but... well, I got some thoughts.”

Sunny and Icy looked at each other before shrugging. “Please,” Sunny said after a moment, “go ahead. Although, if it's about the idea of him being...”

“Nah, don't worry,” Archer shook her head as she climbed onto Lance's back to reach the upper boulders, the cracks in them letting on that she'd already done so a number of times. “I mean, yeah, it seems like a pretty big stretch, but you knew that already. Not impossible, but I'm not sure I'd buy it without some pretty good evidence. Nah, I was thinking there might have been a third... thing involved in the... in the whole thing.”

Sunny narrowed her eyes at Archer, clearly unamused at the suggestion. “Well, I certainly didn't notice anypony.”

Archer nodded. “Yeah, I could tell that but... weird question, but the bit of the north you went to... did it happen to be in the area the Founders of Equestria came from.”

Sunny raised an eyebrow at the apparent non-sequitur. “Er, well, can't really say for certain since, well, nopony knows where they originally came from. If they did, forget empty fields, you wouldn't be able to move for Archaeologists. But, I mean... I guess it's not impossible. Why?”

Archer sighed. “Well, you know how you said that while you were travelling, you started getting really angry and nasty and stopped thinking straight?”

Sunny took a deep breath, obviously not happy with being reminded. “Yes?”

“Well,” Archer continued as she began chipping away at the upper boulder, “maybe it's just my own hang-ups talking, but to me, that sounded a lot like someone was messing with your mind.”

Sunny reared back a little as the idea struck her. “Well... I mean, it would explain... I guess it's possible, but who would have been doing that? None of the others in the party would have had any reason t-” She stopped abruptly before scowling, looking directly at Archer with a snort. “If you're about to suggest that Jet was manipulating me...”

“No, no, take it easy,” Archer twisted round and held her hooves up placatingly, earning a small grunt from Lance below her. “You said yourself he didn't have a horn on him and if he was a sea pony,” she paused and closed her eyes, as if having to restrain herself from rolling them, “then he couldn't have come inland far enough to reach you. If you were getting your brain prodded, he wasn't the pony who did it. Fact, I don't think it was a pony.”

“Huh?” Icy said before her mother could respond. “What do you mean?”

Archer took a deep breath in, clearly not relishing having to bring up what she was about to. “Tell me something. When you were at your worst, the angriest you got with the ponies around you... did you hate them?”

Sunny's hoof began shaking in agitation at the memory as she remained silent for a long time, occasionally opening her mouth for a moment before closing it again sharply. This went on for a good ten or fifteen seconds before she eventually said in a pained whisper, “Yes.”

Archer nodded. “Right, sorry about that, it's just... well, something was making you hate and the daughter you got after everything has ice powers. So, can you think of any kind of creature that wants ponies... needs ponies to hate and can freeze things? Like three whole tribes?”

Icy's eyes widened as she stared at Archer, feeling her mother stop still as well. “A windigo?!”

“Bingo!” Archer said as she began working at the rock again.

“But... but that doesn't...” Icy began as she tried to think through why that might not be the case. “Can Windigos make ponies hate? I mean, we know they feed off it, but...”

“Well, there's a lot of scholarly debate on that subject,” Sunny said, her voice still somewhat distant as she considered the possibility, “which is academic code for 'no one has the first clue' and no one's ever actually been able to study one to find out. If it could, it wouldn't force hate onto somepony, just take whatever negative emotions they had and amplify them - grow them like a crop. Although... I did have plenty of those emotions...”

She shook her head hard. “But then why didn't it affect the others as much? And why would it follow me?”

“Well, from how you described it,” Archer began as she climbed down from Lance's back, “with the hate being part of you but like a separate pony... sounded like a case of Partial Possession to me. And, yeah, no record of them being able to possess ponies either, but it could be some ability they have in reserve or got in the centuries since we last heard from 'em.”

Icy's mouth pursed as she frowned at Archer, finding it strange how knowledgeably she was talking about mind alteration.

At Icy's look, Archer shrugged. “Hey, I’ve told you before – just cause I hate this stuff doesn't mean I'm stupid about it. I've done my homework when it comes to mind control sh- stuff.” She snorted as she turned away. “How else am I supposed to defend against it? Wouldn't be surprised if I knew more about it than some ponies who do it by now.”

“Well, it's not impossible, I guess,” Sunny said, cutting off any further inquiry into Archer's knowledge. “But still, it seems a little... I mean, if that's the case, why doesn't Icy have any kind of affinity for hatred? Shouldn't she... what would have gotten rid of that?”

Icy considered this for a moment before something occurred to her. “That might make sense. When you, um...” she hesitated, unwilling to think too hard about her mother's intimate activities. “You said you felt an outburst when you and him... do you remember if there was any wind? Or cold?”

Sunny frowned in concentration before nodding. “Now that you mention it... I think there was. I... I remember a lot of wind and... I was pretty frozen when I came to. I thought it was just because I'd been on the ground for a while.”

Icy nodded. “I think that would be what did it. That got rid of it.”

Sunny hummed for a moment, clearly open to the idea even as she asked, “What makes you say that?”

Icy shrugged. “Well, it just kinda makes sense. A monster of cold hate... got destroyed by love, leaving only the cold. It just... sounds right, you know?”

Sunny chuckled, a warm smile coming onto her face for the first time in a while. “Well, it's a poetic idea if nothing else. And, well, weird as it is, it does sound plausible. I just hope...”

Icy tilted her head at her mother trailing off. “Hope what?”

Sunny shook her head. “I hope this doesn't make you feel like some kind of freak.”

Icy's brow furrowed as she thought about this seriously. After a moment, however, she relaxed with a giggle. “Nah, it doesn't. Well, not any more than I already did.”

Sunny breathed a sigh of relief, either not noticing or not worrying about the qualifier. “Thank goodness.” She nuzzled her daughter's head. “I mean, I always knew you were special, Icy. I guess I just never realized how amazing... how special. You're more special than I ever thought possible.”

Icy blinked as she considered this, pausing a second before letting slip a simple, “No.”

Sunny jerked her head back a little in surprise. “No? What do you mean?”

Icy snorted a little as she smiled. “I mean...” she paused once more to try and put her feeling into words. “I mean, yeah, this... it does make me... special?” She said, feeling a little weird using that term on herself – that was how parents thought of their kids, not how she was supposed to feel herself. “But... but no, it doesn't make me more special. I mean, no more than anypony... anyone else. Cause... yeah, every pony has just as much special about them.”

Sunny raised an eyebrow. “Well, yes, possibly, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't embrace this.”

“Oh, I know!” Icy assured her. “This is part of what makes me... 'special', so I'm not gonna try and ignore it. But... well, a year ago, I might have thought this makes me more special... more powerful than other ponies but... no. This does make me powerful but... so what? Ponies are powerful.”

She smiled as her thoughts wandered back over the past few months. “Since I joined this team, I've seen so many strange, strong ponies in so many ways. I've seen a colt of rock and fire, a living comic book character, a kid mastermind, a king of the sewer, a fold-out thief, a mini master of illusion and a filly who could aim an avalanche. I've seen ponies who can make minions out of rats, lava, light and paper. I've fought ponies my age because they were simple, because they were spoiled, because they were sporting or because they just wanted someone to notice them. I've met an earth pony who can heal with a song, a unicorn who can see with a horn, a zebra who can shoot lightning with a blade and a minotaur who can make you pee yourself with a glance.”

That got a chuckle from her mother, which she joined in on. “I mean, look at this team! We've got a filly who can shapeshift anything except a head big enough for her brain, a unicorn who can stop time with her horn or her puppy-dog eyes, a filly who can go faster on wheels than almost anyone can on wings and a colt who could charge his way through half an army and eat his way through the other half.” She shot a smile up at Archer and Lance. “Plus a colt who can give speeches through a sword and a filly who can hit bullseyes blindfolded.”

She giggled as a final example occurred to her. “And, well... it's pretty outrageous, I don't know if I believe it, but I have heard there's this mare around here who can fly a hang glider through a hurricane.” She smiled as this drew a chuckle from Sunny.

Icy ruffled her wings as she finished up her little speech. “This? This is really weird, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't make me any more special, more powerful... more amazing than anypony else. Everyone in this world is amazing. It's just a question of how.”

There was a long pause as everyone took a moment to absorb Icy's words.

After a while, Archer gave a couple of quiet claps. “Wow, that was... really inspiring, Icy. Nice speech,” she added without any irony whatsoever, causing Lance to nod hard in agreement.

Icy rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, I mean, it wasn't that good, it just sort of... came to me.”

“Not that good?!” Sunny replied, shaking her head. “It was amazing. My little girl's grown up so much. I'm so proud of you.”

“So, Archer!” Icy blurted out, cutting off any further praise. “How are you doing on the rock? You doing good? You're probably doing good!”

Archer sighed as she looked over her shoulder. “Well, got plenty of cracks in it, but it'll be a while before we can properly break through, if we even can.”

Icy returned the sigh, looking past Archer at the rocks covering up the entrance. As she did, she was briefly reminded of her mother's story. Glancing up at her, she said with a humourless smile. “I guess you can’t use whatever you did to clear the snow out of the cave's opening here as well?”

Sunny chuckled a little as she shook her head. “Afraid not. Back then, I just melted it all. Don't think that'd work here.”

Icy frowned slightly as she thought about this. “All of it? I mean, you said it was big enough to take the glider. Must have taken a lot of work to thaw all that.”

Sunny shrugged. “Not as much as you’d think. Remember how much water expands when it freezes.”

“Right, of course,” Icy said, clopping a hoof on the ground in a combination of realization and annoyance. “Sorry, I remembered how it worked with potholes, but not there.”

“Potholes?” Archer asked as she turned back to the boulder, sounding like she simply expected some pleasant background explanation while she worked.

“Yeah, it was a problem we had all the time back in Flanchorage,” Icy replied, thinking back to the frequent maintenance that was needed on the roads in her old town. “Water would get into all the cracks in the ground and freeze, which meant it grew and cracked them more. The town council was always having to come and fix the cracks in... the... rock...”

She trailed off as everyone looked at each other in realization.

“Mom!” Icy asked after a few seconds, whirling around towards Sunny. “Could we use that to break the rocks?”

Sunny rubbed her chin for a moment. “Maybe, but I don't know if one batch of freezing would do it. We'd need to wait for it to thaw afterwards unless we had some way to make it...” she paused, her eyes crossing as she looked up to her horn. “Right, okay, that could work, but we'd need water t-”

“No problem,” Archer said as she swung her quiver off her back. “There's loads of water deeper into the cave. The cavern I told you about. Can that bag of yours…?”

“Not really bottomless, remember,” Sunny said even as she reached into it. “Can’t apply the shrinking effect to water, so it can’t hold that much. Of course,” she smirked as she pulled a few canteens out and then reached in again, “doesn’t mean it can’t hold some stuff that can.”

Icy blinked as she looked at the rapidly growing pile of canteens, flasks and waterskins in front of her mother. “How many do you have?

“Enough - never know what’ll happen. Okay,” Sunny started pacing slightly as she thought. “Archer, you get the water here, Lance pours it, Icy freezes it, I thaw it... I think that could work.”

As Archer ran off down the cave and Sunny approached the boulders to examine them, Icy found herself smiling.

Get ready, weather-filly. We're not out of the game yet!