//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Arrival // Story: Friendship is Survival // by rlogic1994 //------------------------------// Friendship is Survival By Mmadhu94 Friendship is Survival CH 1: Arrival (Visit the tumblr for Frigid: ask-frigiddrift.tumblr.com!) Frigid Drift was lying in her room fast asleep as the sun rose above the horizon, painting her room with yellows and reds, bathing her in warm rays of light. The change in environment awoke her, her eyes slowly opening. She rolled over and looked out the window. It was dawn. She looked at the Wonderbolts clock to her right and took a few moments to register what time it was. “Well I guess it’s time. *yawn* Hey mom! I’m gonna head out to the ships!” said Frigid. “Not before you get a good breakfast and a goodbye from me!” replied her mother, with slight tones of distress hidden in her drowsy voice. Frigid came down the stairs and met her mother with a smile. She could tell by her mother’s red eyes and tear stained silver coat that she had been crying. Although Frigid had taken the draft notice a little badly, her mother had taken it equally as bad, her body language suggesting she was depressed about her daughter leaving. They stood there for a second looking at each other. “Today’s the day, mom. I gotta get going.” “Well at least take some fresh baked chocolate chip muffins! I know it’s your favorite!” Her mother thought that the aromas of the freshly baked muffins would lure her daughter to linger for some time. But as she placed the plate laden with muffins on the kitchen table, Frigid simply looked at it and shook her head. For frigid, she needed to get to the Northern Base as fast as possible, as directed by the letter she received from Colonel Macintosh. She walked over to her mother, who was surprised at her daughter’s refusal to eat. She stopped for a moment in front of her before putting her hoofs around her mother in a tearful embrace. Her mother’s lip quivered, her sniffling giving away how close she was to bursting into a sobbing fit out of concern for her daughter’s safety. “Mom, I can’t stay anymore. I have to leave…I…have orders...” She gave her mother a kiss on the cheek and turned away towards the door, a few tears still rolling down her cheek and onto the ground. And with that she left, her mother looking through the window at her daughter with sorrowful watering eyes, having held back the urge to run out and try to stop Frigid from leaving. The 2nd night after receiving the notice, Frigid and her Mother argued bitterly about answering the call of duty. There were many excuses that she could use to shirk off the orders, but she wanted to try and be brave for once. Her mother finally agreed that she did need to come out of her shell more and let her answer the call. Down the street the snowy Pegasus walked fast and with long strides, trying to give off an air of confidence. But she slowed a little as she reached the end of her street, which gave her a view of the rest of Cloudsdale because her house was near the top of the cities levels. Frigid couldn’t turn back now. She needed to get to the Northern Base not only because of orders, but because there was a Pegasus she was hoping to meet. She took to the air, staying low to the ground. She had trained hard for weeks so that her wings could get stronger; she really didn’t want another embarrassment to happen like at the last Winter Wrap Up. She held back tears as she remembered how much shouting she had taken from the one pony she had striven to impress: Rainbow Dash. Now wasn’t the time for tears though; she was going to war, where there wouldn’t be time to cry. She slowed down as she saw the docks come into sight, the sun rays reflecting off the metal crafts that lay beyond the dull wooden platforms at the edge of the clouds. She came to a stop and trotted over to the growing crowd of pegasi waiting to board the ships. The group was a mix of pegasi from Cloudsdale and from surrounding cloud towns that were farther east. They were mostly quiet, partially out of drowsiness and partially out of nervousness. Frigid shifted her vision to the ships, which were much larger up close and resembled enormous arrowheads. They towered over her and every other Pegasus in the docks and cast a shadow over the crowd. The dull metal that they were made of looked like it had dents of every size scattered across the bottom and sides. She didn’t want to think of what could have done that. As she was examining each ship, she wondered how they floated in the air as if it were water. And as if to answer her question, an assembly of unicorns exited each craft in an orderly and uniform fashion, their horns all glowing as a sign that they were what kept up the skyships. Each of them didn’t look as stern as on the posters for the draft bill, but what was a little intimidating was their lack of any sort of expression at all. As if they had no soul. It creeped Frigid out just a bit. She saw a slightly smaller and sleeker black craft approach the clouds to their left, its hull bathed in a red glow of magic. On the side were a Sun and a Moon messily painted on the side, signifying that it was a carrier for higher up officers. There was only one unicorn inside who came out and stood by the entrance, his horn glowing brighter than the others, with his eyes also glowing slightly. He had a dark red coat and a fiery red mane. To Frigid he looked a little evil. But he, unlike the other unicorn guards, showed emotion; he showed a look of optimism as he looked over the crowd of pegasi, a small smile creeping onto his face. His eyes snapped from the crowd to something farther away and his face lost its emotion. From the back of the crowd 2 unicorns walked through the crowd towards the craft. One was Rarity, a colonel, and the other was none other than Twilight Sparkle, a lieutenant general. Both walked with their horn glowing, as they added to the red glow around the hull with their own purple and blue magic. They were quickly followed by an orange earth pony named Apple Jack, a brigadier general, and a shy looking yellow Pegasus named Fluttershy, a lieutenant colonel. Of all 4 ponies, Fluttershy was the only one that showed much emotion, no doubt because the others were deep in thought about what was to come and Fluttershy was always known to be nervous. Again the only reason she knew this was because of her stalking Rainbow Dash. Sometimes she thought she was a bit obsessed, but then discarded the thought, thinking that it wasn’t that wrong that she watched the bright blue Pegasus without her knowing. Frigid also noticed that the ponies looked older than from her stalking days. They still looked quite young, but somehow more tired and saddened. It had been quite a few years since the Discord incident, so it was understandable. But Even Frigid was surprised at how young they looked, as if the discord incident was only a few years before when it was quite a few more. Frigid then recalled reading about how the Elements of Harmony imbued each of the bearers with some of the magic contained in the elements. Apparently this magic slowed their aging in a similar way alicorn magic slowed Princess Celestia's aging. Frigid followed the 4 figures with her eyes until they were no longer visible, hidden by the walls of the craft, which sped up and shot out of the docks into the distance. A horn blew out from each of the bigger bulkier transports as the entrances opened up and the unicorns herded the pegasi into each carrier. Frigid walked to the nearest one, looked back on Cloudsdale, and stepped across the threshold into an adventure she would not forget for the rest of her life. She was surprised at how comfortable the carriers were. Although there were no chairs or seats, the carpeted floor was soft enough to lie down and there were a few small windows letting in light. While some of the other pegasi played cards or talked eagerly about the battles they were looking forward to, Frigid kept to herself near a window. She looked out at the landscape flitting by below the vessel, thinking about what she would do if she met the Pegasus who she wanted to meet, the Pegasus who was her father. She saw several land vehicles with wheels being driven by more unicorns on the ground, carrying weapons and ammunition. Although it wasn’t her first time seeing guns and cannons, she couldn’t help but feel nervous. Killing another creature was not a foreign concept to Frigid, but it was one she did not think about often. As she contemplating the situation, she didn’t notice an orange coated magenta maned Pegasus sneaking up on her. “Hey Frigid!” the Pegasus said eagerly. “WHA-! Oh…hey Scootaloo. So I guess you got the draft notice too?” “Yeah, I didn’t really want to go, but my dad said it was a big honor or something.” They turned to the window and were both quiet for a while, both lost in thought. To Frigid, Scootaloo had always been kind of a rival. Although neither of them disliked each other, they were indifferent when it came to their relationship as fellow Flight School graduates. The only reason for their competition was because of both their desires to impress Rainbow Dash, albeit this endeavor was a bit less pronounced now that the cyan Pegasus spent so much time in the army. Apparently before the 1st Griffin war, it had been decided that one of the elements of harmony had to be a representative in the armed forces. It was pretty obvious that the daredevil Rainbow Dash would take the challenge. Apparently she was supposed to be in charge of some of the more covert operations. She looked over at Scootaloo who was now looking out into the distance through the window just as she had been a few minutes ago. The orange mare was about as strong as Frigid, but her body was a little bit more muscular because of her work with the cloud kickers. Her cutie mark, what looked like some sort of a javelin with a dusty trail behind it, was evidence of her love for speed. Frigid looked down at her own cutie mark, the blue ice crystals that reflected her love of the cold and resilience to the elements. Lost in her own world, Frigid didn’t notice the rest of the ride getting quieter and quieter, as pegasi were dropped off at different bases and the ship set its course for its final destination at the Northern Base. Frigid let her eyes slowly close as she took a quick nap to gather her strength for what was to come. Frigid’s eyes jolted open at the sound of the ship’s exit ramp sliding down and hitting the ground with a dull clank. She stood up and looked around. Other than her and Scootaloo, there were only a handful of other Pegasi left. She stretched her body a little as she shuffled out of the ship. The cold air of the North hit her face quickly and caused her to cringe a little. She let her eyes adjust to the bright light of the outside world after being inside the dark airship for several hours. She took in her surroundings with awe; there were pine trees and evergreens everywhere covered in snow, and looming mountains in the distance. The ground she walked on crunched as her hoofs parted the newly fallen layers of the white powder. While she was taking in the scenery, she failed to pay attention to a waiting pagasus guard, who she almost knocked over when she ran into him. The guard glared at her for a moment and then proceeded to lead them into a misty cavern that was some distance away. The ground around them had less snow on it and looked like it had been worn down by many other hoofs. She noticed that many of them were much bigger than hers and for a moment was a little frightened that she was too weak to be doing this. But she quickly disregarded the thought and retained her original air of confidence. She had practiced in front of a mirror at home to get the look just right so she didn’t look arrogant. She looked over at Scootaloo again, who seemed to have the same confidence by nature. She redirected her attention ahead, so that she didn’t have another collision with the guard and started taking in the surroundings as they entered the mist. As she went through, she swore she saw a glow around it that looked like magic. “Is this mist…glowing?” “Yes, the unicorns put a spell to block unauthorized entry encompassing the entire base.” Said the guard Pegasus with the same indifferent attitude the unicorns in the ship had displayed. Once again she started wondering about the vast magical ability of the unicorns and what they could do. She snapped back into reality when she heard Scootaloo gasp. She turned to look at what was so surprising. The base was more mysterious than she imagined. The walls of the cave extended out in an enormous oval shape, so large that the curve of the wall at the entrance looked almost straight left and right of the opening. What was inside was even cooler; at the bottom of the cave was a vast field of stone with some creeks weaving in between the spikes and boulders that littered the field. Above the floor, were tons of small white puffs, with tents on each one of the clouds. As Frigid’s eyes moved up, she saw the ceiling high above her and saw that some of the clouds were only a few feet below the top. She knew enough about the air corps to know the highest tents, which were visibly bigger, were reserved for the highest ranking officers. No doubt the 4 ponies who had embarked on their black ship were now present there. She started looking at the other tents, a few on a grey cloud to the right with a red cross in a white circle stitched on the side, a sign of the medical tents. A few bigger tents farther left had 2 crossing swords on the side and several gun barrels visible through the opening in the tent, armory tents full of weapons of war. Then farther down the main path that they were on were a whole flurry of clouds with hundreds of tents visible on each vast stark white cloud, no doubt the barracks housing all the air corp pegasi recruits. There were some other tents farther away, but Frigid couldn’t tell what they were for; they were unmarked, but were only distinguished by their stormy blue color that characterized the tents for higher up officers. Each cloud had bridges between all the other puffs, creating a network that was used to send messages to other parts of the camp. But what made the base look so cool was the fact the magic mist lightly covered everything, giving the whole place a slightly mystic vibe. “Welcome to the Northern Base” announced the guard, with a slightly more ominously epic tone than he had shown before. Another guard was waiting for them when they reached what seemed to be the center of the base. He talked to the other guard for a moment and then pointed at Frigid, Scootaloo, and a Pegasus who Frigid had come to know as Aurora Skies. The three mares were led off onto one of the cloud bridges to the right, while the rest of the group filed off to the left. Frigid and the other two new recruits looked a little uneasy. The guard that had met their guide was a grey stallion wearing golden armor, a symbol of his status in the well-known Higher Royal Guard. The fact that they had been singled out by someone who commanded High Royal guards was a bit unnerving. All three ponies shakily followed the guard, their anxious emotions growing as they approached the stormy blue tents in the back of the cave that were visible when they had entered. And to make it worse, the mist had piled up near the tents, veiling the entire area in a grey haze and making their legs invisible to them in a sea of vapor. Suddenly all the confidence she had practiced left Frigid, a feeling also shared by Aurora Skies and even the naturally confident Scootaloo. The guard nudged them and pointed to the tent that seemed as if it were miles away, even though in reality it was only a few yards away. “Can’t you…um…escort us in? I mean you are a guard…” “Sorry, but I am not allowed into the special recruit training information tent. It is reserved only for ponies important enough, so you should be honored.” he said with an expressionless tone. And with that he disappeared in the wall of mist behind them, leaving the 3 shaken pegasi alone on the misty cloud. Finally they slowly started walking towards the tent, a few lines of light leaving the crack at the opening of the tent. As they reached the tent entrance and poked their heads in, a deep blue Pegasus with silvery hair turned to them and addressed them with a happy tone. “Aah! The Pegasi recruits are finally here. Well then all three groups that were requested and recommended are here. I will inform the others.” He left and trotted through a second opening at the back of the tent into a second room. As the pegasi waited, they took notice of 2 other groups of 3 ponies, one group of earth ponies, and the other group consisting of unicorns. They were all about the same age. As they eyed each other one of the earth ponies with a cream coat and dull orange hair broke the awkward silence. “So do you guys know why we’re here?” “Well apparently this is the tent for some special recruits thing,” replied Aurora. “Special recruits? What’s so special about us? I mean no offence, but we don’t exactly look like the cream of the crop,” said a unicorn with a pink coat and purple mane, a light purple explosion for a cutie mark. “Cool cutie mark!” said Scootaloo, when she had noticed the explosion on the mare’s flank. “Oh thanks! But it’s not as cool as it looks, I can just do reaction magic pretty well, but that’s it.” “REACTION MAGIC?! Whoa that’s awesome!” said another unicorn. As they all started speaking they established that none of them really knew what was going on and that they all had some talent that was not exactly amazing but not very common. As they all started to get to know each other, a voice in the back room shouted something about getting to the fresh meat and 4 ponies filed out of the drape door in the back. All of the young stallions and mares gasped. Before them stood the blue pony from before, but now with 3 very well known ponies, who were all looking down at the 3 groups. Beside blue pegasus stood the legendary Brigadier Generals Rainbow Dash and Applejack, and the great and powerful Lieutenant General Twilight Sparkle.