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// Polar Bears and Cliffs 
// Story: Scattered 
// by ConfusedBrony 
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Chapter 2: Polar Bears and Cliffs





Watching the enormous polar bear run was a bit mesmerizing. The sound of it running on the snow was soft, and that made the entire situation seem surreal. When I come to think of it, the entire day was surreal. Literally fifteen minutes ago, I was raiding Canterlot with a couple thousand other changelings, and now I'm out in the middle of nowhere with a polar bear charging towards me! I became lost in thought and stared into space. The freezing cold does horrible things to your thought process. I was still watching the bear charge at me, but I felt no urgency to run.

As it approached the shoreline, which was about fifty feet from where I was standing, the polar bear let out a powerful roar. The ice underneath me trembled due to how loud it was. I was scared out of my mind, I didn't even know polar bears could roar! The polar bear picked up it's pace into a full blown sprint. I stood for a moment with my mouth agape then went into sprint myself. I was being chased by a polar bear, a freaking polar bear! I didn't know whether to be proud of myself or terrified. I chose both.

I felt the exact moment the bear stepped onto the frozen lake because I felt the ice shudder and crack. I turned my head over my shoulder again to see that the it had already halved the original distance between us. The bear roared again and I felt my eardrums vibrate along with the rest of my body. I let out a strange squealing sound that I didn't even know I was capable of making and felt a chill run down my spine. It was the same kind of chill you get when you turn out the light in a room and begin walking out thinking a monster is going to grab you. Only this time, a monster did want to grab me, and tear me to shreds while it's at it.

"GO EAT SOMETHING ELSE!" I shouted at it. The bear didn't respond, as expected.

I heard two more footsteps from the bear that were more powerful then the others. I turned around and saw the bear in mid-air with it's front paws outstretched towards me. It's mouth was wide open with it's sharp teeth exposed for me to see. I dove forward and everything went into slow motion. I felt one of the paws graze my rear and a rush of wind from the other paw. I heard the mouth snap close then the bear landed back onto the ice. There was a loud crunching and cracking sounds coming from behind me.

Before having a chance to think about what it was, I landed flat on my chest which knocking the wind out of me. I went into a slide. My body hadn't even settled to a stop when I scrambled back onto my feet and began sprinting again. I stopped shortly after starting when I noticed that the polar bear's footsteps were no longer heard. I skidded to a halt and turned around. Only the upper portions of the polar bear were visible. It had fallen into the water and was falling in. It growled angrily at me.

I stood tall, turned my back to the sinking polar bear, and started to walk away. The growls continued, but sounded less angry. It sounded almost like the polar bear was pleading for me to help it. I ignored it and kept walking without turning back. The damn thing tried to kill me, it got what it deserved. The further I got the quieter the polar bear was. Eventually the growling stopped entirely.

I stumbled onto the shoreline and collapsed in exhaustion. My body was warmer after the chase and feeling returned to most of my legs. The ends were still numb and my ears were also still very painful. I turned back to the ice lake and looked for the polar bear. There was nothing, just vast whiteness. The hole in the lake had frozen over and the polar bear was nowhere to be seen. I sighed in relief, that's one problem dealt with. Now to find my way out of here.

I stood back up then began surveying my surroundings, I was surrounded by mountains, fairly short ones. They looked like they were only six or seven hundred feet. The lake's source was from several small creeks flowing into them, and the source of those was probably runoff from the snow on the mountains and wherever else there  snow. I came to the conclusion that I was in a mountain range. I looked up at the sun and shielded my eyes with my foreleg. Judging from how far the sun was from the horizon, I still had four or five hours of light left.

I couldn't see anything from my vantage point. The lake was at the bottom of a bowl formed by several mountains. I glanced around and decided to scale the peak closest to me. The incline started out shallow, but it quickly got steeper. When I reached the top, I was gasping for air. The wind was strong enough to almost blow me off the ridge line, and it was so cold that my ears completely stopped hurting. They just went numb completely.

I made my time up there as short as possible. I scanned the surroundings quickly and concluded that I had two choices. One of which will kill  me, and one of which might kill me. I could turn around and head back to the lake then deeper into the mountain range, or continue forward and walk down a hellishly steep slope covered in jagged rocky outcroppings. At the bottom of the steep slope were plains, and it looked like there was civilization in the distance.

I looked down the slope again and gulped. The peak was about 500 feet tall from the lake, but it was at least 1000 feet tall from the plains. Walking down was going to be dangerous, stupidly dangerous. I had no other choice though, I stood up, looked down the slope, and began to take the first step. Before I even finished the first step, my wings buzzed as my anxiety levels skyrocketed. I turned my head around and looked at the rapidly vibrating wings. I facehoofed and started a slow glide towards civilization. "This cold really is screwing with me... I thought.

Even though flying was much easier than walking down the slope, it was still treacherous and tricky. The winds made my face raw and my wings throb with pain. The muscles connected to my wings were straining as they fought the wind to stay on course. A particularly strong gust of wind hit me suddenly. I tried to stay in control, but my right wing muscle was pulled by the unwelcome gust. I struggled to keep my right wing going despite the pulled muscle. It was no use, the right wing gave out and I went into an uncontrollable spiral. It was a familiar feeling.

I managed to overcome the pain for a short moment and unfolded my right wing. The pain was excruciating but my flight was stabilized somewhat. The spinning slowed down enough so that I could see what was going on. I looked ahead of me and my heart jumped when I saw a carriage being dragged by a few ponies. I was moving too fast and the carriage was too close for me to pull up in time. I started slowing down, closed my eyes and covered my head. Impact was inevitable.

"OW! OH MY GOD THAT HURT SO BADLY!" I shouted before screaming in pain.

I was looking up at the roof, there was a large hole where I had broken through. Sunbeams shined down on me through the hole. Dust particles were floating around. My whole body coursed with sharp pain. I wiped my hoof on my back and looked at it. It was covered in blood. "What did I land on?!" I asked myself before examining the ground. I was surrounded by bags. I opened one of them and was greeted by broken glass glistening in the sunlight. It was just my luck to land in the only carriage in Equestria that's carrying broken glass.

"What just happened?" I heard through the walls of the carriage.

"I don't know! Come on, let's check it out." I heard footsteps headed towards the rear of the carriage.

"Oh crap oh crap oh crap. I thought.

I thought back to the first pony I could think of and changed shape just as the door opened. I stared at the ponies and they stared back with gaping mouths.

"Y-your majesty, what are you doing in here?" said the pony on the left before bowing.

"Majesty? Bowing? Just who did I turn in to?" I asked myself. I looked down at my hoof, white fur. I looked up at my forehead, there was a long, pearl white horn sticking out. On my back were two large, majestic wings. Also, I had a cutie mark of a sun.

"Er, uh, hello... subjects. I was just inspecting your carriage... filled with broken glass." I winced in pain after being reminded of the couple of hundred lacerations on my back.