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// Winter's Realization 
// Story: Ponies of the Beyond 
// by DADERPSTER 
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Winter had come soon afterwards.
First it started out gentle, but soon short blizzards had covered the ground in snow. Thunderheart's three children were eager to learn the new season, but they only went out to hunt, bringing back their food for the grizzly to eat with them. But the later into winter, the less active Thunderheart was, until she didn't wake up for her pups anymore. Faolan had found it troubling that the great heart he had nursed near with his sisters months before was beating slower during the grizzly's sleep.

Silverwolf seemed neutral about it. She tried to reassure her brother that it was most likely natural, as Thunderheart had told them, and she would wake in the spring when the trees were growing leaves again. She also felt put off, however, about how her milk mother's heart was slowing. It didn't seem natural. Thunderheart's thundering heart didn't slow when she had slept before, and Silver felt unease that the heart would slow so much that it would stop and never start again.

Raven didn't mind at all. The heart was still beating, and to her, that was the only important thing besides survival. The group of three had developed their own strategy for hunting. Raven would fly overhead, using her forehooves to direct them to the closest prey, while Silver and Faolan would attack the prey from below. If the prey was too fast for her siblings, Raven would drop down on the prey, landing hard enough to break its spine. Although the two fillies were meant to eat vegetarien foods, they had grown to eating meat thanks to Thunderheart.

Raven woke one night from her spot beside Thunderheart, hearing a beautiful howling from outside. From her experience of living with a wolf and a bear, she understood what the howls meant;  I am here, with my brothers and sisters. We are all safe, and we will travel to a new den in a moon. she also heard another message tied into that one, however; This is our territory. Do not tresspass. She looked out and saw Faolan sitting there, prey at his paws, and she could see Silver laying by the entrance, eyes closed but ears perked.

Much like those wolves, I am safe with my family, in the winter. Thunderheart will wake up, even in the bitter cold, and we will be together. We were found to survive together.